


Lima Syndrome

by pinecontents



Series: No Way Out [2]
Category: Rhett & Link
Genre: Alternate Universe - Never Met, Angst, Blood, Enemies to Friends, Hostage Situations, Kidnapping, M/M, Prison, Slow Burn, Trials, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-25
Updated: 2020-03-11
Packaged: 2021-02-27 16:02:07
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 35
Words: 43,374
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22409881
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pinecontents/pseuds/pinecontents
Summary: “What… what’s going on? Who are you people?"“Well, Charles,” Rhett began. “You’ve been kidnapped.”“No, that… I mean,obviouslyI’ve been kidnapped, I was just wonderingwhy,” Charles said. “And my name isn’t Charles.”(Rhett's side of the events in Stockholm Syndrome)
Relationships: Rhett McLaughlin/Link Neal
Series: No Way Out [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1614850
Comments: 238
Kudos: 180





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> A million thanks to @sohox for being enthusiastic and supportive while I wrote this, and also for fixing my typos.
> 
> For Link's point of view, go read Stockholm Syndrome.

It was a beautiful autumn morning in Shenandoah National Park. Crisp and cool in a way that promised to warm as the day wore on, but never get hot. A few filmy clouds were smeared across the sky, and a hint of mist hung over the trees. The trees blazed in reds, oranges, and yellows.

Rhett’s goal was to summit Old Rag Mountain. He’d done it before, more than once, but never in the fall. Old Rag’s summit was bare rock, and he wanted to see three hundred and sixty degrees of the Blue Ridge Mountains covered in fiery turning leaves. They were gorgeous in summer green, and he was sure they’d be stunning in autumn tones.

It wasn’t a long hike, less than ten miles, but it wasn’t easy. A significant stretch was a rock scramble--not quite rock climbing, but not quite hiking, either. It would probably take about eight hours, total. Rhett planned to reach the summit around noon, eat lunch, take some pictures, soak in the beauty of nature, and then head back. He hoped to return before it got dark, but the days were getting shorter, and hiking could be unpredictable, so he had a headlamp tucked in his slim pack. There was always a delicate balance when dealing with a rock scramble. A big overpacked bag would make everything much more difficult, but it wouldn’t do to leave behind any important gear (After seeing _127 Hours_ , Rhett _always_ made sure to have a pocket knife, as well as letting someone know where he was and when he expected to be back).

He was alone on the trail, which was a minor miracle. The trick was to go on a weekday, when things were less busy, but there were usually at least a couple other people around even on a slow day.

It was damp and cool under the trees. Rhett made his way up slowly, taking the time to savor all the little animals noises he heard and interesting little plants he saw. It was a lovely day to be in the woods.

When he reached the rock scramble, Rhett took a few minutes to reposition everything in his bag so they wouldn’t shift as he was climbing. He put it back on and tightened the straps, and then put a boot on one rock and a hand on another. He pulled himself up and reached out--

“McLaughlin!”

Rhett snapped back to awareness. He was not on Old Rag. He was in an illegal apartment in an abandoned warehouse in an industrial district outside Oakland, where he was waiting for his associates to arrive with their prize.

And here they were. One of them, at least.

“You daydream too fuckin’ much,” Demetrius complained. “You better not do that once we get him in here.”

_Him?_ Not what Rhett expected. Not that he’d actually been given any details.

“I’ve been waiting for six hours, sir,” Rhett said mildly. “There’s nothing to do here. I barely have a cell signal and there’s no books or TV. There’s only so much Bejeweled and Tetris one can play.”

“Whatever.”

“Where’s Willen and Portelli?” Rhett asked. “I assume you were successful.”

“You assume correctly.” And as if on cue, three figures appeared behind Demetrius. It was Willen and Portelli with a third unknown man supported between them. Rhett couldn’t see him very well--he was slumped forward, semiconscious, and the lighting wasn’t great--but he looked like he was in his mid thirties, and tall. 

Rhett had not been happy when Demetrius informed him he would be on babysitting duty for the victim in his ransom plot. He wasn’t surprised, though. A month ago, Rhett had tripped an alarm at a mansion they’d been… not robbing, exactly. Breaking and entering, yes, but all they’d planned to take were some high resolution pictures of some important documents. But then Rhett accidentally set off the alarm before they even got into the house and ruined the whole thing. He’d been in the doghouse ever since.

“So who is this guy?” he asked as Willen and Portelli deposited him on the couch. Rhett got up to take a look at him. He had a red bandana tied over his face. Rhett slipped it off. “Jesus Christ, what did you do to him?” The man seemed fully unconscious now. There was dried blood all over his face, crusted around his nose and smeared down his cheek from a cut under his eye. Knowing Portelli, there were probably more injuries elsewhere.

“He didn’t wanna cooperate,” Portelli said, confirming Rhett’s suspicions.

“This,” Demetrius said with great ceremony, “is Charles Neal.”

Rhett’s brow furrowed. “The guy who owns that big news channel?” The man on the couch was pretty beat up, but he didn’t look old enough to be Charles Neal, CEO of America’s largest news channel and general media tycoon.

“His son,” Demetrius clarified. “They have the same name.”

“Ah.” Rhett stood next to the couch. Willen and Portelli were gone, back to wherever they lurked when they weren’t needed. Rhett didn’t know, and he didn’t want to know. They gave him the creeps. Willen was short, wiry, soft spoken, and capable of astonishing violence that he applied with pinpoint accuracy. Portelli was stocky, loud, and capable of astonishing violence that he applied like Jackson Pollock with a loaded paintbrush. The results were usually about as messy as a Pollock painting, too. “So what are you going to do with him?”

Demetrius clapped him on the shoulder. “I am going to leave him in your capable hands.”

Silence.

“And that’s it? I just… hang out with him here?” Rhett asked, gesturing around the apartment. It reminded him of the studio apartment he had in college, only much, much crappier. “For how long?”

Demetrius shrugged. “As long as it takes his dear old dad to pay up.”

Rhett dearly wished he hadn’t tripped the alarm a month ago. Spending an indeterminate amount of time in a tiny apartment, eating takeout and canned food, with some spoiled rich fucker, did not sound like a good time.

At least Charles Neal was an adult man and not the small child or teenage girl Rhett had assumed would show up.

“Yes, sir.” Rhett was resigned to his fate. There was no arguing with Demetrius.

“I’m gonna go get you a first aid kit. The idiot Portelli really fucked him up,” Demetrius shook his head. Portelli was in the doghouse now. “You want anything else from the pharmacy?”

Rhett thought for a moment. “A Coke? In the can if they have it.” There were any number of things Rhett would like from the pharmacy, but he wasn’t going to push his luck. Demetrius offering to get him anything was astonishing.

“You know the door code?”

Rhett nodded and typed 913786 into the electronic lock he’d installed a few days ago. There was a beep and a little green light flashed.

Demetrius clapped him on the shoulder again. “You’re gonna do great.” And with that he was gone, leaving Rhett alone with the battered man on the couch.


	2. Chapter 2

Rhett took a closer look at Charles Neal. Salt and pepper hair, more pepper than salt, dress shirt buttoned all the way up under a v-neck sweater, khakis, brown suede chelsea boots. There was more dried blood splattered on his shirtfront, one of the sleeves of his sweater was torn, and there were smears of mud or grease or something on his pants. Other than looking like he’d been run over by a car, there wasn’t really anything noteworthy about him. Rhett lifted his foot and kicked the arm of the couch under Charles’s head as hard as he could.

“Gah!” His eyes shot open and he sat bolt upright before leaning over with a groan.

“Knew you were fakin’,” Rhett said with satisfaction. Unconscious people didn’t shift into a less uncomfortable position once they thought no one was looking.

“I’m gonna throw up,” Charles mumbled. Rhett hauled him up and propelled him in the direction of the bathroom. He took a seat on the couch himself and waited for Charles to reemerge. When he did, he was pale and shaken, but he’d cleaned most of the blood off his face and looked more alert. “What… what’s going on? Who are you people?”

“Well, Charles,” Rhett began. “You’ve been kidnapped.”

“No, that… I mean, _obviously_ I’ve been kidnapped, I was just wondering _why_ ,” Charles said. “And my name isn’t Charles.”

Rhett felt a slight pang of unease. Did they have the wrong guy? Surely even Portelli would check his ID, right? He made sure none of his doubts showed on his face. “You’re not Charles Neal?”

The man who may or may not have been Charles Neal looked around the apartment. It wasn’t very impressive. One room, little more than a poorly constructed drywall box, furnished with a couch, a folding card table, two resin patio chairs, a couple floor lamps, and an air mattress. The bathroom had, when this was a functioning warehouse, been a combination restroom and janitor’s closet, complete with a toilet, a utility sink, and a mop sink in the corner.

There were no windows.

“I mean, legally, yeah,” said not-Charles Neal, “but it’s Link, really. Lincoln. My middle name. Charles is my dad. He kind of has a monopoly on it.”

“He has a monopoly on a number of things,” Rhett observed. He was on the couch with his legs stretched forward, which didn’t do anything to keep Link in the bathroom, but he remained in the doorway.

Link’s eyes widened in understanding. “Oh. Are you gonna want him to pay a ransom? Is that what this is about?”

“Perhaps.” Rhett was interested to see that while Link’s hands shook, his voice was clear and even.

“You know we’re not on speaking terms, right?” Link’s eyes wandered around the makeshift little room again before meeting Rhett’s. They were disarmingly bright blue. There was a subconjunctival hemorrhage in the left one, probably from the same blow that cut his cheekbone. Rhett felt another wave of irritation at Portelli. Unless Link was secretly a black belt in jiu jitsu or something, there was no way he was a match for any of them. It wasn’t going to make them look reasonable, to have their captive so obviously beaten.

Of course, that was Demetrius’s problem to solve. 

Rhett shrugged. He hadn’t known that, of course. He hadn’t even been aware that Charles Neal _had_ a son until about twenty minutes ago. Link’s face twisted unhappily and he finally left the bathroom door to sit on one of the patio chairs. He folded his arms on the card table and laid his head down on them.

Rhett returned to Old Rag in his mind.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Half an hour later, there was a knock at the door. Both men turned to look. Rhett stood. “Get on the floor,” he said.

Link gave him a baffled look. “The floor?”

“Yeah, like you’re being arrested.” Rhett demonstrated by interlacing his fingers on the back of his head. He waited until Link assumed a satisfactory position. “I’ll be gone for a few minutes. Don’t get up until I come back and tell you to, understood?”

There was a muffled, “Okay,” from the floor. Either he was naturally compliant or Portelli and Willen had freaked him out more than he let on, because Link had obeyed Rhett instantly, and Rhett hadn’t done anything but kick the couch.

He carefully placed his body between Link and the electric lock and typed in the code.

913786

Demetrius was right outside. Rhett held up a finger to shush him and slipped out, making sure the door was locked. He walked a ways away from the apartment door into the dusty open space of the warehouse proper before saying, “Okay.”

“Learn anything interesting?” Demetrius handed him a bottle of Coke. Disappointing, but Rhett cracked it open anyway and took a gulp. He nodded.

“Said he goes by Link, and he doesn’t talk to his dad.”

“That’s a weird fuckin’ name,” Demetrius said. “I knew they didn’t talk, but did he say _why_?”

“No, sir.” Rhett felt like screaming. Demetrius was his boss, of course, but then there was a grandboss, someone that Demetrius reported to. It was this grandboss who came up with the ransom scheme. Hell, maybe there was even a great-grandboss somewhere. Rhett didn’t know who the grandboss was, since he was on the lowest rung of the ladder by far, but he was sure that someone, somewhere, should have done some sort of basic fucking research, or maybe had some common sense. If a man didn’t speak to his son, was there any guarantee that he’d pay a shit ton of ransom for him?

Of course, the grandboss probably did know, and figured Charles Neal would pay up. There was a lot that went on that Rhett didn’t know about.

“Well, see if you can figure it out, okay? But be subtle about it. Make him think you’re his friend.”

“His friend,” Rhett said flatly. It seemed like a bad idea.

“C’mon, McLaughlin. You know what friends are.” Demetrius grinned at him. “You know, like Portelli and Willen. They’re friends.”

Rhett’s jaw dropped open. He had never even considered the concept of ‘friends’ and ‘Willen and Portelli’ in the same universe. “Sir, if you’ll forgive me, I wouldn’t describe them as ‘friends’. I’d call them two sides of a fucked up coin.”

Demetrius threw back his head and roared with laughter. Rhett prudently joined him. “Too true, too true.” Demetrius handed a plastic shopping bag to Rhett. It contained a large first aid kit, some snacks, and a bottle of ibuprofen. “Try to patch him up as best you can.”

Rhett took the bag. “Can I make a request?”

“You may,” Demetrius said. “Although I make no promises.”

“Is it possible that we could get another air mattress? I don’t want to sleep on that couch.”

“Then make him sleep on the couch,” was Demetrius’s answer. “Hell, make him do anything you like, just don’t fuck his face up any more. He’s your type, right?” He gave Rhett a suggestive leer.

It had been a while since Demetrius had referenced Rhett’s sexuality. He was suddenly reminded that while Demetrius seemed like a genial, if dangerous, man, he was actually more loathsome than Portelli and Willen put together.

Rhett hated him.

“Yes, sir,” he replied. 

“Oh, and there’s these. Willen found them while he was cleaning the trunk.” Demetrius pulled a pair of clear plastic glasses out of his shirt pocket and handed them over.

 _The trunk?_ Rhett _really_ hated him.

After a final pat to the shoulder, Demetrius was gone, and Rhett went back into the illegal apartment.


	3. Chapter 3

Link was still lying obediently on the filthy concrete floor, which was good, because Rhett didn’t actually know what he would have done if he wasn’t.

“Get up and go sit on the couch,” Rhett said. Link got up stiffly and did some stretches before sitting. Rhett was actually a little impressed at how flexible he was, although he would never admit it. He dumped the bag on the couch next to Link and dragged one of the green patio chairs over. Link stared over Rhett’s shoulder as he pulled out the first aid kit and flipped it open. He looked up. “You don’t have to be scared of me, man. I’m not gonna hurt you.”

“That’s what the other guy said.”

“Yeah, well, he’s an asshole.” Rhett didn’t know which of his associates Link referred to, but it didn’t matter. The statement covered them all. He closed the kit and balanced it on his knees as a makeshift table. He laid out his supplies: disinfectant, gauze pads, steristrips, and a little pair of scissors.

Link eyed them warily. “What are you gonna do?”

“Fix your cut. This is gonna hurt, but try not to move, okay?” Rhett squirted disinfectant on a cotton square and held it up to Link’s cheekbone before he could protest.

“Ah, fuck!” Link hissed.

“Sorry.” Rhett tried to be as gentle as possible as he cleaned off the remaining dried blood. He took Link’s face into his hand and turned his head to inspect the wound. “This should really have stitches. I’ll do the best I can, but you’re probably going to have a scar.”

“Oh.” Link’s voice wavered for the first time. Rhett guessed that learning he’d have a permanent physical reminder really brought it home that this was really happening.

“Sorry,” Rhett said again. He held the steristrips up to the cut and carefully trimmed them to size. “This is gonna suck, so brace yourself, okay? And try not to screw your face up too much.”

“Okay.” To his credit, Link didn’t move a muscle as Rhett pulled the wound closed with the bandages, although tears leaked from under his eyelids and he had a whiteknuckle grip on the couch cushion.

“That’s it. All done.” Rhett slid back in the patio chair and handed Link a gauze pad to wipe his face with. “You’re tougher than you look.”

Link laughed shakily. “Is that a compliment?”

Rhett gave him a little smile. “Yeah.”

“Where’d you learn to do that?” Link reached up and ran his finger over the steristrips. “Ow.”

“Youtube.” Rhett dumped the contents of the shopping bag on the couch and dropped the bloody gauze pad in. “Got anything else that needs attention?”

Link shook his head. “Bruises and scratches. And my nose is broken, but you can’t do anything about that.”

“Are you sure?” Link’s nose didn’t look broken to Rhett. It was swollen, but still straight.

“Positive. When I was washing my face earlier, I could feel the broken parts grinding against each other. Right here.” Link touched the bridge of his nose.

“Yeah, that does sound broken.” Rhett opened the first aid kit back up. There was a chemical cold pack included. He handed it over. Link squeezed it and held it up to his nose. “There’s some painkillers, too, if you want.”

“Can I eat these?” Link pulled a package of Reese’s Cups out from the pile of stuff on the couch.

Rhett smiled, really and truly smiled. “You can eat any of that you want. Hell, if you want takeout, I’ll have Portelli go out and get it. That’s the guy who…” he touched his cheek in response to Link’s questioning look. “He wasn’t supposed to do that.”

“Can we send him to Chipotle?”

“Hell yeah.”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Link balled up the foil from his burrito and stuck it in the garbage. “Can I ask you a question?”

“You can ask. I might not answer.” Rhett shifted in his chair. Having dinner at the table together might be friendly, but it wasn’t very comfortable.

“What’s your name?”

“James.” It was probably pointless to give Link a fake name. Rhett had been against the whole ransom thing from the very beginning. It seemed destined to fail. What, were they just supposed to send this guy back unharmed after he’d seen their faces, and everyone just went happily on their way? Either he turned them in, they were caught some other way, Link ended up dead, or all of the above.

It wasn’t Rhett’s choice, of course.

Link gave him a skeptical look. “That’s not really your name, is it?”

“It is.” If Link could go by his middle name, and a nickname for his middle name at that, then Rhett’s middle name could really be his name, too. “Now I have a question for you.”

“Okay.”

“Why don’t you talk to your dad?” Rhett asked.

Link slumped in his patio chair. “He’s the one who won’t talk, not me, and he says it’s ‘cause I didn’t go into broadcasting, which is true, but it’s also ‘cause I’m gay. There’s a lot of other shit tied up in that, of course, but basically it all boils down to the fact that I’m my own person and he can’t fucking stand that.”

Well, Rhett certainly wouldn’t mention the gay part to Demetrius. “So what do you do instead?”

“I design user interfaces for really dangerous stuff, like radiation machines and control panels at chemical plants, that sort of thing. I have to assume that everyone using one is going to be a complete fucking idiot who wants to kill themselves and everyone else, and make it so they can’t, even accidently. Like, Three Mile Island, that nuclear meltdown in the late 70s, was caused in large part by really poorly designed interfaces. Red lights meant something was turned on and green was off.”

Rhett pictured a mushroom cloud going off. “So no pressure, huh?”

“Nah.” Link shook his head with a rueful little grin. “So how’d you get into this whole kidnapping business?”

“When I was thirteen, I shoplifted a Walkman from K-Mart,” Rhett replied. “And thus began my life of crime.”

“I guess you do have to start somewhere,” Link said. “Work your way up from Walkmen to cars to jewels to people.” He started to giggle but abruptly burst into tears.

“Uh.” Rhett was completely at a loss. What was the etiquette for dealing with your captive’s sudden breakdown? Any of the others would surely slap Link into submission, but Rhett had never been able to do that sort of thing. He gestured helplessly at Link. “That’s not… I… please don’t cry.”

Any tentative rapport between the two men crumbled as Link gave him a withering, resigned glare. “‘Don’t cry’? I came home from work and took my dog to the park, next thing I knew, I was in the trunk of a car with a broken nose, now I’m locked in this fucking basement waiting for my asshole dad to pay up, _maybe_ , and if that wasn’t bad enough, I have to have some fucking criminal for a roommate? My face hurts and I’m scared and I don’t know what happened to my dog! So don’t tell me not to cry.”

Rhett got up and retrieved a wad of toilet paper from the bathroom. He handed it over and Link blew his nose noisily, wincing as the broken nasal bones ground together. “Okay, look,” Rhett began. “I’m not gonna make you any promises, but I will do my best to make this the least awful for you that I can. Yeah, it’s gonna suck, but if you need anything, let me know, and I’ll try to get it. And I’ll see if I can find out anything about your dog.”

Link wiped his nose and continued glaring at Rhett.

Rhett sighed. “I know you don’t trust me. You don’t have to. But at the very least, you don’t have to worry about me hurting you.”

“I guess,” Link muttered. “What time is it?”

Rhett checked his smartwatch. His phone was on the other side of the door. “10:17.”

“I’m gonna go to sleep,” Link said. “I had a really long day.”

“Seems like an understatement,” Rhett replied. “You get the couch.” He picked a blanket up off the stack on the air mattress and tossed it at Link, who looked at the stained and sagging couch in dismay, but didn’t protest. He sat and peeled off his sweater and unbuttoned his navy dress shirt. Underneath, Link had a faded red t-shirt printed like a sriracha bottle. Rhett blinked. It seemed like Link had a whimsical side under his straightlaced exterior, which was confirmed when he pulled off his shoes.

“What’s that on your socks?” Rhett asked. 

Link held his feet out and wiggled his toes. “Phases of the moon.”

Rhett positioned himself on the air mattress in front of the door. He toed off his sneakers and lifted a foot towards Link. His socks were decorated with roosters. “Cock socks.”

“Nice.” Link curled up on the couch with the blanket wrapped completely around him, much like his Chipotle burrito.

Rhett got comfortable on the air mattress, or at least as comfortable as he was going to get. He reached up to turn off the lamp. “You ready? It’s gonna be real dark.”

“Yeah.” Despite Link’s confident answer, Rhett heard him make a small, scared noise as the room was plunged into pitch darkness. There wasn’t even a single LED to light up a corner. Then Link took in a steadying breath. “Goodnight, James.”

 _Tougher than he looks_ , Rhett though. “Goodnight.”


	4. Chapter 4

The two men were awakened by a loud knock on the door.

“Wha… what time is it?” Link’s voice was small, groggy.

Rhett checked his watch. “5:23am. Watch out, I’m turning on the light.” He winced at the sudden assault on his eyes. He looked over to the couch. Link had the blanket pulled up over his head. “Stay on the couch, okay? Do not get up.” Rhett unlocked the door and closed it behind him. Willen was outside. “Yeah?”

“You want anything from McDonalds?” Willen was about a foot shorter and fifty pounds lighter than Rhett, but Rhett had seen him take down men who outweighed him by a hundred pounds. He also knew Willen was carrying a gun, a knife, and a baton, and probably some other stuff as well.

“Uh, a couple Egg McMuffins and a large coffee. And same for him, I guess.” Rhett jerked a thumb over his shoulder towards the apartment.

Willen nodded agreeably. “You got it, hoss.” He wandered off in the direction of Demetrius’s office. Rhett got along with Willen, more or less, if you counted ‘icy, mutually suspicious professionalism’ as getting along. His relationship with Portelli was more along the lines of actively simmering loathing.

Rhett let himself back into the apartment. “What was that?” Link asked. He was still on the couch, but now he was sitting cross legged with the blanket wrapped around him like ET in the bicycle basket.

“Breakfast. Hope you like Egg McMuffins.” He frowned at Link. “I told you not to move.”

“No, you said to stay on the couch, so I stayed on the couch,” Link said. “Can I go pee now?”

“I don’t appreciate that ‘follow the letter of the law, but not the spirit’ bullshit, Neal, so don’t press your luck,” Rhett said, irritated. “But yeah, go ahead.”

Rhett stole Link’s spot on the couch while he was in the bathroom. If this went on much longer, Rhett was going to have to send Portelli on a quest to get an armchair or something out of a dumpster for some additional seating, because this was ridiculous. 

Link paused as he came out of the bathroom at the sight of Rhett on the couch, but grabbed his blanket and sat in one of the patio chairs instead. “Do you always get up this early?” he asked.

“No.” Rhett could tell that Link wanted to go back to sleep, but knew better than to ask him to move or to use the air mattress. They could negotiate something after breakfast, because Rhett wouldn’t mind going back to sleep, either.

They sat in silence, Link with his head pillowed on his arms at the card table, Rhett with his legs stretched out in front of the couch, until there was a knock on the door.

“Stay there. Head down,” Rhett commanded. There was a small nod in acknowledgement from Link. Rhett unlocked the door. Willen passed in a paper bag and a cardboard holder with two cups of coffee.

“Boss wants to see you when you’re done,” he said. “I’ll take over for you then.”

“O… okay.” Rhett shut and locked the door. If Demetrius wanted Willen to take over, that meant the meeting was not going to be a short little check-in. That brought up a lot of questions, the first of which was: did he trust Willen to not hurt Link?

The short answer was yes, at least not physically. Willen was not the loose cannon that Portelli was, although Rhett would bet good money on Link being very, very scared of him. Being scared and unhappy for a while wouldn’t kill him, though, which was good because there was nothing Rhett could do about it.

“Eat up.” Rhett dropped the bag on the table in front of Link. He took a coffee and two sandwiches for himself and tucked in while Link unwrapped one and looked at it with reservation. “What, you a Burger King man?”

“I don’t wanna be here,” Link answered before taking an unhappy bite. 

“I know,” Rhett replied. There wasn’t much to say beyond that. He finished his McMuffins and watched as Link finished one and wrapped the bag carefully around the other to save for later. “I gotta go talk to the boss. Willen’s gonna stay here with you while I do.”

Link looked up in apprehension. “He’s the short one, right?”

“Yeah. He’s not gonna hurt you, though, unless you do something stupid.” Rhett got up and shoved the air mattress in Link’s direction with his foot. “Just go back to sleep.”

“Okay,” Link said, resigned. He pulled the air mattress as far away from the couch as possible (which was not very far) and vanished completely into a pile of blankets. Rhett shook his head a little and didn’t bother telling him not to move while he unlocked the door.

Willen was sitting right outside on another patio chair, reading a newspaper. He got up and wordlessly went into the apartment. The lock beeped, leaving Rhett outside with a sense of misgiving. He steeled himself and headed to the stairs to go see Demetrius.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“McLaughlin! How is our guest?” Demetrius gestured Rhett to the chair in front of his desk. Rhett sat.

Demetrius’s ‘office’ was a space on the second floor of the warehouse that had been some sort of control room. There was a wall of dead monitors and switches off to one side. Rhett wondered what Link would make of it, with his user interface expertise. Demetrius had a desk set in front of the controls, like some kind of captain in a sci fi drama. It made Rhett roll his eyes internally every time he came in.

“He’s not very happy,” Rhett said. “And he asked about his dog.”

Demetrius raised a bushy eyebrow. “His dog?”

“Yeah, he was walking his dog when Willen and Portelli picked him up. He’s worried about it.”

Demetrius shrugged. “You’d have to ask one of them. What did he say about his dad?”

“Um, he said they don’t talk because Link didn’t follow him into broadcasting, and because Link is his own person, not just a copy of his dad,” Rhett said. “I think that’s why he doesn’t go by Charles. Oh, and I told him my name is James.”

“What are your general impressions of him?” Demetrius asked, leaning back in his office chair.

Rhett thought. “Um, he’s smart. He designs control panels for a living--like those ones.” He gestured to the wall behind Demetrius. “He doesn’t talk back much, pretty much does what I tell him. Overall, I’d say he’s basically resigned to just waiting it out. Although…” he tapped his fingers on his chin. “I sort of get the feeling that he doesn’t think his dad will pay.”

“Well, even if he doesn’t think much of his son, Neal sure cares about his public image, and refusing to pay up isn’t gonna do him any favors there,” Demetrius observed. “Do you think he’s a flight risk?”

“At this point? No. There’s no way he could overpower any of us,” Rhett said. “He also thinks he’s locked in a basement.” The apartment was actually on the ground floor of the warehouse.

“Do you think he’s likely to hurt himself?”

“No.”

Demetrius nodded, deep in thought. Rhett took a chance. “Sir?”

“Yeah?”

“Have you had any contact with his dad yet?”

“That’s being handled above me,” Demetrius said. “If there has been, I don’t know about it yet. I _do_ know that there hasn’t been a missing person report filed yet.”

Rhett didn’t bother asking how he knew that. The answer would be the same as it always was. _I have my ways._

“How would you like me to proceed with him?” Rhett asked.

“Well, this ain’t a luxury resort, but for now just keep him as happy and healthy as you can, yeah?” Demetrius pulled out his wallet and handed a hundred dollars in twenties to Rhett, who nearly keeled over from shock. “Get what you need, but I want receipts for every penny, do you understand?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Get Willen to spell you when you go out. I don’t want that idiot Portelli near him.” Demetrius’s face darkened. Rhett suddenly felt very, very glad that he’d been relegated to babysitting duty instead of kidnapping duty. Apparently, injuring a captive’s face was a very serious sin.

“Yes, sir.” Rhett requested and received a piece of paper and a pen, and returned to the apartment.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> If you aren't also reading Stockholm Syndrome, you should! It's the same events through Link's point of view.

When Willen unlocked the apartment door, Rhett gestured him out rather than swapping places.

“Hey, do you have any idea what happened to his dog?” Rhett asked.

“His dog?” Willen blinked in surprise. “I don’t know, I was kind of otherwise occupied. I think it just ran off.”

“Okay, thanks,” Rhett said. “The boss said you’d spell me if I needed. Do I just send you a text?” He nodded to his phone, which was stashed on the floor next to the apartment door.

“Yup.” With that, Willen was obviously done with the conversation, so Rhett let himself back into the apartment. The little light on the electronic lock flashed red, signifying it was locked.

Everything was much as he left it. Link was still curled up under a pile of blankets, his spare McMuffin was still wrapped neatly on the table, the couch was still hideous and stained. The only appreciable difference was the newspaper Willen had left. Rhett picked it up and sank into the couch to read.

Bad news, bad news, bad news. Rhett got sucked into an investigative article about corruption in the Health Department that resulted in restaurants passing health inspections when they really, really shouldn’t have. He was dismayed to learn that his favorite Indian place had an ongoing mouse problem. Gradually, though, he realized that Link was sniffling. It sounded like he was trying to cry without making noise.

“You okay over there, Neal?” he asked.

“Leave me _alone_!” was the furious answer. “I hate you.”

Rhett got up and gathered the McDonald’s napkins from the table and dropped them on the air mattress where Link could easily reach them. “Got you some tissues.”

A corner of the blanket lifted up and a hand emerged. Link quickly snatched the napkins and blew his nose. Rhett returned to the couch and his newspaper, but it was difficult to read with Link crying in the background.

“I asked Willen about your dog,” Rhett said. “He thinks it just ran off.”

“ _She_ ,” Link said from his blanket cocoon. “Her name is Jade. She’s a dachshund. Well, kind of. I love her.”

Rhett put down the newspaper and rubbed his face. “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry.”

Silence. He glanced over at the air mattress again and noticed that Link’s khakis were crumpled next to it. Rhett frowned. Link had definitely been wearing them when he left.

“Link,” he said, deliberately using his first name. “What happened while I was gone?”

The blankets heaved as Link sobbed, and then were abruptly throw back as Link sat up. He had two black eyes from his broken nose and looked absolutely furious and ashamed. “He took _pictures_!”

“Pictures?” Rhett repeated stupidly.

“Documentation,” Link said. His voice was bitter. “Pictures with the newspaper, to show I was alive. Lots of pictures of my face.” He touched the steristripped cut. “He had me strip down to my underwear so he could ‘document’ all my scrapes and bruises. And it’s gonna be the same every day.”

Rhett felt a little sick. It was one thing to imagine the kidnapping and captivity of some hypothetical person, and another to be there and witness all the grief and anger and indignity of it. Link was a real person, and they hadn’t even spent twelve hours together, but Rhett was starting to hate himself for his part in it.

“I didn’t… I had no idea he was going to do that,” Rhett said.

“ _Fuck_ you, James.”

Rhett picked up the newspaper again, but when he tried to read, all he did was stare at the page.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

At some point, Link fell asleep. Rhett could hear his deep, even breathing. He checked his watch. It wasn’t even 11am yet. It was going to be a long day.

Rhett finished the newspaper, even the classifieds (lots of people trying to sell poodle-mix puppies with cutesy names for big money). He left it folded up on the couch and moved over to the card table. If Link was going to be staying here for long term, and Rhett had to assume it would be at least a few more days, he was going to need some supplies. And if Rhett was going to be staying with him, _he_ was going to need some supplies of his own. Mental stimulation, mostly. Maybe it was time to catch up on his reading. He certainly had plenty of unread books at home, and when he was done, Link could read them to prevent his brain from melting from disuse. Win-win.

Link (and Rhett, by extension) was extremely lucky that whoever built this apartment had done so around a functional bathroom. The mop sink even had a hose that could be used for bathing, although the water never seemed to get more than lukewarm. But that required soap, and a towel… Rhett continued adding things to his list. It was astonishing how much _stuff_ a person needed, even for a barely comfortable existence. 

For his part, Rhett’s stuff was all at his apartment a thirty minute drive away. Of course, it wasn’t really his apartment, any more than this makeshift place in the warehouse was Link’s apartment, but at least it had a real shower and the outlets were properly installed in the wall rather than being a power strip on an extension cord that was threaded through a tiny hole in the drywall and plugged into an outlet twenty feet away. Rhett’s place was in a slummy building full of drug users and drug dealers, who all had better things to worry about than the comings and goings of a single neighbor. He had no idea who actually owned it--he’d just been assigned there several months ago and moved in to find it already furnished and ready to go. Portelli, Willen, and Demetrius were all similarly set up, although Demetrius’s place was surely much nicer.

Before Link actually showed up, it seemed perfectly reasonable to Rhett that he’d leave one of his associates in charge and go back to his place daily to shower and run any errands he needed to do. Now, though, Rhett found he was loathe to leave Link with Willen.

But, like so much about this situation, it wasn’t up to him.


	6. Chapter 6

There was a knock on the door. Rhett checked his watch and raised his eyebrows. 1:33pm. Link still hadn’t moved from his blanket pile, but he sat up at the sound of the knock and rubbed his eyes groggily. “What time is it?” he asked.

“1:30. Lie back down for a minute.” Rhett unlocked the door without bothering to make sure Link actually obeyed. It was Willen with a bag from Subway. He handed it over. 

“One turkey, one ham,” he said.

“Thanks,” Rhett replied. He glanced behind him, but couldn’t see Link. He was hidden behind the arm of the couch. “Hey, can you take over for me for a while after I eat? I gotta go do some stuff.”

“Sure thing, hoss.” Willen settled down in the chair by the door and pulled a little pocket book of Sudokus out. He was obsessed with Sudoku. Rhett didn’t get it. They all seemed the same to him.

He returned to the apartment, blinking a little at how dim it seemed, compared to the warehouse proper, which had huge panels of little yellowed panes of pebbled glass windows that let golden sunlight pour in and illuminate the ever present motes of dust that floated in the air. It was kind of beautiful, really. Rhett had always been a ‘glory of nature’ kind of guy, always would be, but there was something about the industrial decay of that factory that he kind of loved. It made him want to explore other abandoned places.

“Lunch,” he declared as he dropped the bag on the table. Link pulled his pants back on under the blanket and vanished into the bathroom. Rhett waited for him to come back before eating. “Do you want turkey or ham?”

“Ham, I guess.” Rhett watched as he unwrapped the sandwich and carefully removed all the tomatoes. Link glanced up at Rhett. “I don’t like ‘em, okay?”

“I didn’t say anything.” Rhett pulled his shopping list out of his pocket and slid it across the table. “I’m gonna go buy you some stuff. Let me know if I missed anything.”

Link took a bite of his sub and read through the list. “Can I get an alarm clock or a watch or something? Not knowing the time is really disorienting.” He seemed somewhat recovered from his earlier outburst, but there was something brittle about him.

“Sure.” Rhett took the list back and scrawled ‘clock’ at the bottom.

“Am I gonna be alone, or is that other guy going to be in here?” Link’s sandwich lay on the table, forgotten.

“His name’s Willen, and yeah, he’s gonna be here.” 

Link crumpled at the news. “Are… are you sure I can’t just wait by myself? I promise I’m not gonna do anything.”

“Not yet. Maybe later, if you keep behavin’ yourself.” Rhett didn’t have any idea if Demetrius would allow that, but he wasn’t going to tell Link that. “Just… read the paper and try to ignore him.”

Link didn’t respond, and wouldn’t meet Rhett’s eyes. They ate in uncomfortable silence until Rhett finished--he’d always been a fast eater. He crumpled up the sandwich wrapper and gathered up the rest of the trash in the apartment before picking up the paper and putting in in front of Link, who continued to ignore him.

Rhett went to the door and swapped with Willen. He felt guilty leaving Link with him, but he also couldn’t stay in the apartment 24/7. For one thing, he’d go insane. Hopefully Link was more mentally resilient. 

He left the warehouse, crossing through golden puddles of sunlight, and walked the few blocks to his van. It was a white panel van, perfectly generic, especially in the industrial district they were in.

If anyone were to look in the back, they would see the tools of a handyman--and indeed, Rhett was a handyman. He was the one who had fixed up the illegal apartment, made sure the plumbing worked, determined that the sketchy extension cord setup _probably_ wouldn’t set everything on fire, and installed the new reinforced door with its electronic lock. 

There were a lot of places a handyman could go. No matter how rich or reclusive you were, eventually you’d need a plumber or an electrician or a cable tech, so no one thought anything about a white van parked nearby. And if they did? Well, there were thousands of white panel vans around. It was almost like being invisible.

If someone were to look under the tool racks, they wouldn’t see anything, but that was because Rhett’s _real_ tools were locked away in hidden compartments.

They didn’t take up that much room, and he didn’t use most of them that often. Rhett’s main tool was a very, very powerful laptop that was housed in the shell of a much cheaper, older laptop. He used it to write programs from prompts given to him by Demetrius.

Currently, he was working on something that he called “Carjacker”. When remotely installed on someone’s cell phone, it would hijack their Uber and when they summoned a car, someone like Willen or Portelli would show up instead.

That was the theory, anyway. It didn’t work yet, and for some reason Rhett didn’t find himself motivated to improve it.

He got in the van and drove off towards his apartment.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

There weren’t a lot of personal belongings in Rhett’s apartment, but there were quite a few books. Rhett took a shower and then threw some toiletries and a few changes of clothes in a bag and grabbed the top five or six books off his ‘to read’ stack.

By the time he got back to the warehouse after hitting a couple different stores on the way, he’d been gone for nearly three hours. Rhett parked his van by the warehouse to unload his purchases. He brought his electric drill in with him.

He gathered up his shopping bags and knocked on the apartment door. When Willen answered, Rhett entered. “Wait,” he said as Willen went to leave. “I bought an armchair at the thrift store. I can’t keep sitting on that fucking couch. It’s killing my back. I’m gonna need you to help me bring it in.”

Willen gestured towards Link, who had been sitting at the card table folding little origami cranes from newspaper and was now just watching. “What are you gonna do with him?” Link looked nervously at Rhett. 

Rhett spoke directly to him. “I don’t have any reason not to trust you, but…” he rummaged around in one of the bags and came up with a hasp and a small padlock. “I’m gonna lock you in the bathroom.” Rhett was uncomfortably aware of two pairs of eyes watching him as he screwed the hasp into the bathroom door frame: Willen’s, which were black and disinterested, and Link’s, which were blue and reproachful.

Rhett finished and stood aside. “All yours,” he said, and gestured as if he were allowing someone to enter a door before him. Link rolled his bruised eyes and sat on the closed toilet. Rhett closed the door and locked the padlock on the hasp and then tucked the keys in his pocket.

It took a good fifteen minutes to get the chair situated in the room. All the furniture had to be rearranged. They finally ended up having to prop the air mattress on the wall--there just wasn’t enough floor space. Rhett would have to fold up the card table and stack the patio chairs on top of the armchair in order to sleep at night. 

Willen left and Rhett unlocked the bathroom. Link looked around with mild surprise--he’d heard them cursing and arguing, of course, so it was no surprise that everything was in a different place. He went and sat on the couch.

“Got you some stuff,” Rhett said. He handed Link the shopping bags. “And some books to read.” Link pulled things out of the bags and started sorting them into categories. “What, no thank you?”

Link shook his head.

Rhett frowned. “What, are you giving me the silent treatment?”

A nod.

“That’s real fuckin’ mature.”

Link glanced up and gave him a look that said _Really?_ and went back to his sorting. Rhett grabbed the top book of the pile and sat in his chair with a huff. He was aware that he wasn’t acting very mature, either, but at least he could go take a walk if he needed.

Rhett got comfortable in his avocado green velvet armchair ( _Why were there so many avocado green velvet armchairs in the world?_ he wondered. The thrift store he’d visited had three, all different) and cracked his book open. Soon he was deep into Sarah Vowell’s pilgrimage to the assassination sites of presidents Lincoln, Garfield, and McKinley. It was deeply weird and very funny.

Meanwhile, Link finished sorting through everything Rhett had given him. Some of it he unwrapped and some of it he stashed away in a corner with his other belongings (which up until now had consisted of his shoes, an empty Coke bottle filled with water, and his glasses, which he couldn’t wear because the bridge of his nose was still too swollen and tender). He also gathered up as many of his origami cranes as possible. A lot of them had been trampled during the rearrangement of the room.

Rhett tried his best to ignore Link, which was a little difficult due to the cramped quarters. He hoped that Demetrius would allow Link to stay by himself in the apartment, although he’d probably still want someone to stand guard outside the door. As little as he wanted to work on his Carjacker program, Rhett wouldn’t mind setting up a desk outside the apartment and working there. At least he’d get to bask in the muted golden sunlight of the warehouse proper, instead of the dim lamplight of the apartment. No wonder Link thought he was in a basement.

And speaking of Link… Rhett looked up to see him vanish into the bathroom with the dollar store toiletries and towel. The towel was surprisingly nice for only costing three dollars. Maybe, when this was all over, Rhett would shop at the dollar store himself. His expectations had been low, but he’d been pleasantly surprised.

Link was in the bathroom for a long time. There was a lot of splashing and running water that turned on and off. Rhett figured that trying to bathe in a mop sink was probably a pain in the ass, but at least it wasn’t a regular sink. He’d given himself a few sink baths in his time, and they sucked.

By the time Link emerged in his sriracha shirt and khakis with his hair hanging damp in his face, Rhett’s bladder was about ready to burst. He hurried into the bathroom to relieve himself. He turned to wash his hands and froze.

There were a couple hooks and clips over the mop sink for hanging mop heads to drip dry. Link had hung his towel on one and his navy dress shirt on another. It looked like he’d been trying to wash the bloodstains off it.

It was the third hook that gave Rhett pause. There hung a pair of underwear, patterned with birds sitting on wires in front of a blue sky filled with fluffy clouds. That meant that Link was out in the apartment, commando under his khakis. The realization brought a warm flush to Rhett’s face.

Demetrius had so crudely said Link was “your type”, meaning “you’re gay, and he is a man,” but the truth was that Link kind of _was_ his type. Rhett was into the whole silver fox thing, and despite the bloom of blood on the white of his left eye and halfmoon bruises underneath, Link’s eyes were arresting. Even beat up and sullen, he was attractive.

This might become a problem.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Slow Horses is one of my absolute favorite books and I highly recommend it.

They fell into a routine. Rhett told Willen not to wake them up so fucking early, so he switched to coming around 8am with some sort of fast food breakfast. Rhett asked him where Portelli was--he hadn’t been around for a few days. Willen just shrugged and said he was “out on a job.” That suited Rhett just fine.

He had also fulfilled Link’s request for a clock. It was a very cheap, very basic digital alarm clock, but it did the job. It also doubled as a nightlight, which was a welcome relief from the pitch blackness of the apartment at night. Link set it for 7:30 and got up without hitting the snooze even once, which Rhett hadn’t even thought possible.

After they ate breakfast, Rhett would swap with Willen and go talk to Demetrius for a while. There was still no update about the status of Link’s ransom, or his dog. It was frustrating.

When he returned to the apartment, Link would be red faced and furious from having his picture taken. The morning of the third day they were together, he surprised Rhett by folding up the card table and stacking the patio chairs up on the couch and launching into a yoga routine in the little open space.

Link’s approach to yoga was strong, deliberate, and powerful. He held each pose beautifully and moved from one to the next with a grace that Rhett didn’t expect, given Link’s usual twitchiness. His breath was slow, deep, and even, and when he finished, he was visibly calmer. The transformation was remarkable.

Link would then set the card table back up and read the paper Willen left behind before doing all the puzzles. He’d carefully fold and tear the paper into squares and fold them into cranes, which he stored in a plastic bag. Rhett didn’t know what he needed all those cranes for, and he didn’t bother to ask. Link still wasn’t speaking to him.

After lunch, which showed up whenever Willen felt like it, Rhett would leave and do whatever he needed to do. Sometimes he went to his apartment, sometimes he went to the gym, sometimes he ran errands, and sometimes he just sat in a park and enjoyed being outdoors. He did a lot of hiking in his mind while in the apartment. It was nice to see real trees and plants, even for just half an hour.

When he returned, he and Link usually spent most of the afternoon and evening reading in silence. Rhett relaxed in his chair and Link lounged on the couch. It would have been lovely if they’d been there by choice.

Instead, the whole thing was mind numbing.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

“At least you’re not gonna behead me live on the internet,” Link said.

“Uh.” Link hadn’t said a word, at least to Rhett, in over four days. “What?”

“The kid in this book.” Link lifted it up so Rhett could see. _Slow Horses_ , by Mick Herron. “He got kidnapped and now they’re threatening to behead him on cam. So it could be worse, I guess.”

“What the fuck.” Rhett got out of his chair and snatched the book out of Link’s hand.

“Hey! You lost my place!”

Rhett ignored him and read the synopsis.

_Slough House is where the washed-up MI5 spies go to while away what's left of their failed careers. The "slow horses," as they’re called, have all disgraced themselves in some way to get relegated here…_

_River Cartwright, one such “slow horse,” is bitter about his failure and about his tedious assignment transcribing cell phone conversations. When a young man is abducted and his kidnappers threaten to broadcast his beheading live on the Internet, River sees an opportunity to redeem himself. But is the victim who he first appears to be?_

“What the _fuck_ ,” Rhett repeated. “I brought you a book about a kidnapping?”

“Well, I certainly didn’t bring it with me.”

“Shut up,” Rhett said. He wavered momentarily before giving the book back to Link, who watched him warily. Unless it contained step by step instructions on how to escape captivity, the damage was already done.

Link flipped through the pages, looking for his place. “You really didn’t know what it was about?”

“I mean, I guess I did…” Rhett admitted. “It’s just been a while since I looked at it. I buy ‘em faster than than I read ‘em.”

“Mm. Thought it might have been a sick joke.” Link dove back into the book, conversation apparently over.

Rhett wasn’t ready for it to be over. He’d done a little research on Link during his time out in the world. Link was thirty five, a little younger than Rhett. Either he wasn’t much into social media, or he had his accounts seriously locked down, because the only thing Rhett found was a LinkedIn page that didn’t tell him much other than that Link was well educated, had an impressive resume, and contributed to some industry journals. There was a local newspaper article from a few years ago with a quote from Link about a potential new off-leash dog park (he was for it) and his name was listed as being a donor to a few different charitable foundations, mostly animal welfare and LGTB causes. Before his kidnapping, it seemed, he was a pretty unremarkable guy.

Now, though… “You want an update about your dad? And your dog?” Rhett asked.

Link slammed the book down into his lap. “What do you fucking think, James? Huh? You think I’ve decided that ‘well, this is my life now’, and forgot about all that?”

“So that’s a yes?”

Link covered his face with his hands and shrieked with frustration. Rhett raised his eyebrows and carefully saved his place in his own book. If Link had finally cracked, he needed to be ready for action, but once he’d taken a couple deep breaths, Link just seethed through gritted teeth, “Yes, god damn it!”

“Okay.” Rhett settled back into his chair. “So I read this online yesterday when I was Googling you.” It wasn’t just Google. Rhett knew of a lot more ways to find out information about someone. He could have found Link’s Social Security number, his bank balance, every address he’d ever lived at and every car he’d ever owned. He just didn’t care about any of that.

“You _would_ ,” Link said in disgust.

Rhett held up his hands in defense. “Hey, I gotta know what kind of guy my roommate is, right? And those motherfuckers don’t tell me anything, so I gotta find things out myself. Anyway, about a day and a half after Willen and Portelli picked you up, somebody found your dog--”

“Jade!” Link cried. “Is she okay?”

“Yeah, man, she’s good.” A genuine smile spread across Link’s face. It was the first time Rhett had seen him look anywhere near happy, and it made him beautiful. Rhett smiled, too, despite trying not to. “Somebody found her and posted her on some lost pets Facebook group, and the commenters said to take her to be scanned for a microchip.” He’d been able to find the original post. A lot of the comments were along the lines of _What a cute pup! Hope she finds her home soon!_ Rhett had to admit, Link’s dog was pretty cute. She was a little weiner dog with fluffy ears that stuck straight out. “Anyway, they took her to a shelter and scanned her, and when they couldn’t get in touch with you they tried the second contact--your friend, I guess?”

“Yeah, Alex.”

“So he came and got her, and when _he_ couldn’t get in touch with you, he reported you missing. And that’s when my higher ups contacted your dad, and I guess things are in negotiations.” Rhett was almost certainly not supposed to tell Link about this--after all, Demetrius hadn’t told him. He’d found it out on his own.

“Oh,” Link said. “How are they going?”

“Dunno. It’s not in the news yet.”

Link tilted his head a little. “Then how did you find out?”

“You know what the dark web is?” Rhett asked.

“Of course I know what the dark web is!” Link said. “It’s for illegal stuff.”

Rhett couldn’t deny that. He’d certainly done a lot of illegal stuff on the dark web. “There’s all kinds of rumors and secrets there, if you know where to look.” In this case, he had looked on a secret board used by law enforcement to gripe about their cases. Apparently, extended hostage negotiations were a huge pain in the ass.

“Is that all?” Link asked. “I don’t wanna get my hopes up too soon, y’know?”

“That’s all for now, but I’ll let you know if anything changes,” Rhett said. He paused and took a deep breath. “Look, I just want you to know that I’m sorry this is happening to you, that none of this was my idea but I didn’t get any say in it, that I’m not having that great of a time being cooped up in here either, and that I hope you get to go home soon and that this hasn’t fucked you up too much.”

Link gazed at him levelly for a moment. “Okay,” he said finally, and opened his book back up.

“That’s it?” Rhett said, a little hurt. Something about Link actually speaking to him brought up some problematic feelings.

“Yes, James, that’s it!” Link slammed the book down again. “What do you want me to say? That I forgive you? That it’s cool between us just because you feel guilty? Because it isn’t! You ruined my life, okay? Even if I get out of here tomorrow, it’s going to follow me every day for the rest of my life. I’m not gonna be Link anymore, I’m just gonna be the guy who got kidnapped and held for ransom. The media’s gonna be beating down my door. And don’t think I haven’t noticed that you want to be my friend, playing the good cop and bringing me all those little presents. If you really wanted to be my friend, you’d let me go.”

“I can’t,” Rhett said faintly. He could barely breathe.

“I _know_ you can’t!” Link looked more angry and helpless than Rhett had ever seen him, even more so than the first day when Willen took his picture. His face was bright red and tears were streaming down his face. “So just leave me the fuck alone!” He threw himself down onto the couch and buried his face in the corner. The book tumbled from his lap to the floor, forgotten.

Rhett sat paralyzed in his thrift store chair, more filled with doubt and self loathing than he ever had been before in his life.


	8. Chapter 8

“He’s really, really unhappy,” Rhett reported to Demetrius. “He screamed at me last night.”

“What’d you do to him?” Demetrius asked.

“Nothin’. He’s just mad. Understandably.”

“Hmph.” Demetrius leaned back in his chair. “Heard from his dad.”

“Oh?” Rhett said with genuine interest.

“Mmhmm. He wants to play hardball.” He stroked his mustache. “This is going to be interesting.”

Rhett wanted to yell at him that this wasn’t a game, it wasn’t a television show, it was someone’s real life. But, of course, to Demetrius, Link wasn’t a real person. He was just an object to be used as he saw fit. And so, for that matter, was Rhett.

Instead, what he said was, “So what does that mean for us, sir?”

“Well, I told you we’d keep him for as long as it takes, so just keep doing what you’ve been doing.”

“Could I leave him by himself?” Rhett asked. “Not, like, _completely_ alone. What I mean is, can I set up a desk right outside the door and work there instead of staying in the room with him all the time?”

Demetrius raised his bushy eyebrows. “Got a little cabin fever there?”

“Very much so.”

“If you trust him by himself, I don’t see why you can’t do that for part of the day,” Demetrius said. “But I want you in there at night.”

Even a partial reprieve was more than Rhett had hoped for. “Yes, sir. Thank you.”

~*~*~*~*~*~**~*~

“Things are gonna be changing around here!” Rhett announced when he returned to the apartment. Link looked up from his origami cranes in mild interest mixed with apprehension. He was back to giving Rhett the silent treatment, so Rhett just continued. “You’re gonna be getting some privacy, Link. I’ve got a desk set up right outside so I can get some work done, but if you need me you can just knock on the door.”

Link rolled his eyes, as if his ever needing Rhett was an absurdity, and returned back to his folding.

“What do you need all those cranes for, anyway?” Rhett asked.

Link looked up and actually met his eyes. The bruises under his eyes had faded to a brownish green and the subconjunctival hemorrhage was nearly gone. “If you make a thousand, you get a wish,” he said quietly, and looked back down.

There was something in Link’s voice that made Rhett indescribably sad. “Oh.” He gathered up the fast food wrappers and other trash that had accumulated and left, leaving Link truly by himself for the first time in over a week.

Rhett’s ‘desk’ was actually just a folding table, the sort that one might bring out for a work potluck, but at least he had a real office chair, scavenged from an office elsewhere in the factory. He was a little afraid it might have black mold on it (there was certainly _something_ suspicious on the gray upholstery), but it was a definite upgrade from the patio chair.

He didn’t want to work on Carjacker. It made him sick to think that it might result in another person ending up in Link’s situation, or even something worse. Instead, he turned to an old side hustle: stealing inactive Instagram accounts. It was easy enough: he had a program that crawled through Instagram, found accounts that hadn’t posted or commented in a specific amount of time (in this case, a year), and ran a list of the two hundred most common password against them. Once he had access to the account, it was easy enough to change the password and take control.

An account that had a marketable name, or a lot of followers, could be worth a fair amount on the dark web. Those he would sell individually, and the other less valuable accounts would be sold in a bundle. It wasn’t something that he could make a living off of, but it filled the gaps between getting paid for Demetrius’s jobs.

After several hours of work and a large bottle of water later, Rhett had to pee. He couldn’t leave Link unattended, even locked up as he was, and the next closest working bathroom was down the hall from Demetrius’s office upstairs, so he entered the code and opened the door to the apartment.

Link was lying on the couch, as usual, but instead of reading a book, he had his dress shirt unbuttoned and pulled wide, his pants pushed down, and his hand moving furiously on his cock. His blue eyes opened and widened in shock as the door opened and he scrambled to haul his khakis up.

“Oh, fuck! Sorry, sorry!” Rhett slammed it as quickly as he could. He stood with his back pressed against the door, his own eyes equally wide. The warehouse was empty, so at least no one had seen him lose his cool, but on the other hand, there was no one to cover for him while he went to the other bathroom. Not that he’d want to explain why he didn’t want to use the perfectly good bathroom right there.

Rhett briefly considered peeing in some dark corner (after all, it wasn’t like the warehouse could get much filthier), but he was going to have to face Link in a few hours, anyway. He ended up waiting about thirty minutes before knocking on the door. 

“Yeah?” came the muffled answer from within, so Rhett unlocked the door and entered. Link was cross legged on the couch with his shirt buttoned up to the top button, wrapped in his favorite blanket, a mint green fleece. He had _Slow Horses_ open in his lap, and was nearly done.

“Just gotta pee,” Rhett said as he headed to the toilet.

“Mmkay.” Link turned the page.

When he came back, Rhett started, “So, sorry about earlier. I should--”

“James.”

“--have knocked but I didn’t even think of it. Hell--”

“ _James_.”

“--I probably would do the same if I hadn’t had any privacy in over a week--”

“ _James_!”

Rhett realized he was being spoken to. “What?”

“Please shut up.” Link’s gaze was fixed down at his book, but his cheeks were bright pink. “Don’t... don’t make it worse than it already is.”

“I’ll knock next time, promise.” Rhett went to the door. “See you in a few hours.”

“Bye.” Link hadn’t looked up once, but he wasn’t giving Rhett the silent treatment, either.


	9. Chapter 9

Rhett stared at his laptop without registering anything on the screen. He hadn’t done any meaningful work since he’d opened the door to catch Link masturbating. It had given him a lot to think about.

First: Link was fucking _hot_. He always changed in the bathroom, and when he washed his khakis, he kept the blanket tucked around his waist like a sarong until they were dry, so Rhett had never seen him less than fully dressed. It was honestly impressive, given how close the quarters were. Seeing him mostly naked, back arched and mouth slack in with pleasure… it had been a lot. Rhett was certainly going to think about it the next time _he_ had privacy.

Second: He liked it when Link wasn’t giving him the silent treatment. Rhett wanted more of that. If nothing else, it would make the days go faster if they could interact. But if Rhett were to be honest with himself, and he was, he wanted to be friends with Link.

Third: If he were smart, he would ask to be reassigned, because he was getting too emotionally involved.

Fourth: Link didn’t want to be his friend, because he saw Rhett as the ‘good cop’ captor.

Fifth: Rhett figured that there was no way this was going to end well for him. No matter how much ransom Link’s dad paid, almost none of it would trickle down to Rhett. And as the main captor, well… he was going to prison, one way or the other.

Sixth: If he was going to prison, maybe he should break Link out, turn himself in, testify against his accomplices, and throw himself on the mercy of the courts and hope for a reduced sentence. This would, however, require Link to like and trust him, which was a problem.

Seventh: Fuck.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Once he got settled into the apartment for the evening, Rhett looked over at Link, who was still on the couch. He’d started a new book, though.

“Hey, Link,” Rhett said. Link looked up at him. “Can I look at that cut? It’s probably time to take the bandages off.” He touched his finger to his cheekbone.

“Oh.” Link touched his own cheekbone. “Yeah, they’re starting to peel off.”

Rhett washed his hands and sat in front of Link. “Shouldn’t hurt much this time,” he said. The steristrips peeled off easily. The cut underneath was fully closed and the scabs were nearly gone. “Alright, go take a look, see what you think.”

Link went into the bathroom and leaned over the utility sink to inspect himself in the small mirror that someone had glued there. Rhett followed and stood in the doorway of the bathroom, watching Link. His mouth twisted into an unhappy frown as he ran his fingers across the wound. “It’ll fade with time,” Rhett said.

Link jumped. “Oh! I didn’t know you were there.” He turned back to the mirror. “It could be worse, I guess.”

“Yeah.” Rhett stepped back from the door to allow Link out.

“Thank you,” Link said.

Rhett’s eyebrows shot up. Link had barely been civil to him since the first night, when it seemed like they might have had a real connection. Of course, Willen had ruined that the next morning. “You’re welcome. And I have something to tell you.”

“Oh?” They settled onto their respective pieces of crappy secondhand furniture.

“Yeah. My name isn’t James.”

Link snorted. “No shit.”

“It’s Rhett. James is my middle name.”

“Rhett,” Link repeated. He chewed on a nail thoughtfully. “The other guys, are those their real names?”

“Uh.” Rhett was taken aback. He’d never considered it. “I honestly have no idea.”

“Willen calls you McLaughlin. Is _that_ real?”

“Yes.”

Link tilted his head and looked at Rhett thoughtfully. “So they know your real name, but you don’t know theirs?”

“I… I’m not exactly in charge here. Kind of the opposite, really. I think that’s why they put me in charge of you.”

Link gave him a quizzical look. 

Rhett tried to explain. “I guess you could say I’m expendable? I don’t really know anything, so when this is all over, if it goes bad and I go to prison, it’s not a big problem for the higher ups. And I don’t have anything more important to be doing. There’s a lot of people that can do computer stuff, and a lot that can do it better than me.” He shrugged. It was pretty depressing to lay it all out like that.

“So if someone else can do your job better, you don’t know anything, and they don’t care about you, why are you here?” Link asked.

“Well.... it’s not that they don’t care about me. Um, I defrauded some kind of shell corporation a couple years ago. Twelve million dollars. I’m not even sure who actually owned it, but they caught me, and one day Demetrius showed up at my door and informed me that I worked for him now. That’s what they care about, the twelve million dollars. I’ve been working it off, and once your dad pays, I’ll be done.”

“Ja--Rhett,” Link said gently. “Do you really believe that?”

“No.”

“Huh.” Link had a thoughtful look on his face. “I guess you’re a prisoner almost as much as I am.”

Well, it sure sounded like it when he put it like that.

 _Fuck_ , Rhett thought, not for the first time.


	10. Chapter 10

After that, it was like a seal had been broken between the two men, nearly as easily as the bandages had peeled off of Link’s cheek. 

There were still times when Link wouldn’t talk or even look at Rhett, but it seemed less like it was because he wouldn’t, and more like because he couldn’t. It was usually in the midmorning, after Willen had taken his daily pictures, something Link hated more than anything else. He’d sit silently at the card table and fold cranes out of newspaper, fast food bags, the junk mail envelopes that Rhett used as bookmarks--any scraps of paper he could get. There were days he would be so upset, bright red with tears pouring down his face, that Rhett would leave and sit outside for a while.

A major upside to Demetrius allowing Link to stay in the apartment by himself was that he didn’t have to spend afternoons alone with Willen anymore. It seemed to do wonders for his mental health. Instead of returning from his afternoon errands to find Link hiding under a pile of blankets, he’d be upright and reading a book. Sometimes he’d even smile a little at Rhett, which both lifted Rhett’s spirits and broke his heart.

On the evening of the twelfth day, Rhett asked, “So, if you could have me bring anything here for you, what would it be? And I’m talking realistically.”

Link looked over at him and frowned. “Is this a bribe or something?”

“No. You don’t have anything that I want.”

“Uh… okay.” Link thought for a few moments. “Some clean clothes, the sequels to _Slow Horses_ , a needle and thread, and a really good apple. I’m so tired of fast food.”

That was all pretty self explanatory except… “A needle and thread?”

“For my cranes.” Link nodded to the cardboard box in the corner where he stored his things. “I want to string them up so I can keep track of how many I have. And I want to fix my sweater.”

“Will you show me how to make one?” Rhett asked, surprising himself.

“Uh, sure,” Link said, equally surprised. He went to his box and retrieved a couple of squares of paper. He probably spent more time carefully scoring and tearing out the squares then he did actually folding cranes, but Rhett wasn’t about to give him anything sharp. He even took Link’s razor away after he shaved. 

Rhett took his square and flipped it over. It was from an Arby’s bag. Link pulled his patio chair up next to Rhett. It was the first time he’d willingly approached him, and it made Rhett strangely nervous.

Link was a good teacher and in no time at all, Rhett had a little brown and red crane, just big enough to fit on his palm. He tried to give it to Link to add to his collection, but Link just shook his head. “You keep it,” he said. “Start saving up for your own wish.”

Rhett carefully flattened the crane and tucked it into his wallet.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

“Got your stuff.” Rhett dropped a Wal-Mart bag on the couch next to Link. “Well, some of it, anyway.” Link laid his book face down over the couch arm and pulled things out: a package each of boxers and undershirts, a pair of pajama pants, a pocket sewing kit with the scissors removed, three Fuji apples, and a fingernail clipper. 

Link immediately took one of the apples and bit into it. He held the last item up. “You tryin’ to tell me to quit biting my nails?” he mumbled through a mouthful of apple.

“Uh, I actually go it so you could cut the thread, but yeah, that’s gross. Oh, and one more thing.” Rhett reached into his back pocket and pulled out a folded piece of paper. He handed it over to Link, who set the apple in his lap.

It was a printout of a screenshot of a tweet by someone called @haw411an_punch showing a smiling blond guy with a beard being licked on the cheek by a dachshund with fluffy ears. _Gonna miss this little lady when her dad comes home!_ read the caption.

“Oh, Jade! And Alex.” Link put the picture down and wiped his eyes. “It feels like it’s been more than two weeks.”

“Yeah, about that…” Rhett shifted around in his chair. “I finally found out how much your ransom is. They’ve really been keeping it under wraps.”

“This is from that place on the dark web?”

“Yeah. It was fifty million dollars, but now it’s forty million. Your dad’s still trying to negotiate downwards.”

“Ha!” Link slapped a hand over his mouth to prevent the giggles from escaping. “Sorry, it’s not really funny, it’s just that my dad hasn’t paid a penny towards me since I declared a major in engineering. Who _picked_ me, anyway? Did they even do any research? There have to have been better candidates.”

“That’s what I thought, when you told me your dad didn’t talk to you!” Rhett exclaimed. “And you’re, like, a single, middle-aged man with no kids, which, no offense, because same, is not the exactly the sort of person the news media gets that invested in. I mean, I was honestly expecting a little kid or a teenage girl when Demetrius told me I’d be babysitting a captive.”

“Did he actually use the word ‘babysit’?” Link asked. Rhett nodded. Link glanced around the horrible little apartment and winced. “I guess I’d rather it be me than a kid, I guess.”

“I’d rather have you than a kid, too, but I’d rather have a kid than a teenage girl,” Rhett said. “I don’t _think_ the others would hurt a kid, but I wouldn’t trust them around a woman.”

Link looked sick. “You’re not saying…”

“The first night you were here, Demetrius told me I could do whatever I wanted to you.” 

“What?”

“I’m gay, too.”

Comprehension dawned on Link’s face. “Oh! Ohhhh. So they think you’re making me blow you or whatever and they’re okay with it? That’s fucked up.”

“This whole thing is fucked up, Link!” Rhett gestured at the apartment around them.

“Sorry, I guess I mean something like, ‘Wow, I just discovered a new layer of fucked uppedness that I didn’t know about before’,” Link said. “And thanks for not making me do anything.”

“I made you sleep on the couch,” Rhett admitted.

Link raised an eyebrow. “I wasn’t aware I had a choice.”

“You don’t.”

“Ah.”


	11. Chapter 11

“If Willen brings McDonald’s again today, I’m going to fucking strangle him,” Rhett declared.

Link looked up. He had both feet and one hand flat on the floor with his other hand up to the ceiling. “Then tell him to get something else.”

“I did. That’s why I’m gonna strangle him if I have to eat another McMuffin,” Rhett said. He nodded at Link’s position. “What’s that once called?”

“Side angle. And _this_ …” Link switched hands and ended up with his torso twisted away from Rhett. “...is revolved side angle.”

Rhett admired the way Link’s shoulders moved under the cheap white t-shirt. “Looks uncomfortable.”

“It’s not.” There was a knock at the door. Link put both hands on the ground and went through a series of movements that ended with him standing in front of Rhett. “Bet you a dollar he has McDonald’s.”

“You don’t have a dollar.” Rhett went to the door.

“I will if he has McDonald’s.”

“Whatever.” Rhett punched in the code and pulled the door open. “Willen, if you have a bag of McMuffins I swear to god--what the fuck. Portelli?”

Portelli squeezed his bulk through the partially opened door. He had a newspaper in one hand and a McDonald’s bag in the other. “McLaughlin. Neal.” He nodded at each in turn.

Rhett glanced over at Link. He’d retreated as far as he could do and had his back pressed in the corner of the apartment and looked like he was about to have a panic attack. Rhett turned back to Portelli. “Where’s Willen?” he demanded.

Portelli shrugged. “Out.” Rhett stared at him for a moment. He’d been hiding his new cordiality with Link, telling Demetrius that Link was still giving him the silent treatment most of the time. There wasn’t anything Rhett could do to help Link now.

Once again, he had no choice.

He narrowed his eyes at Portelli. “Don’t fuck him up.” Rhett turned to Link, his back to Portelli. He pointed at Link. “And you cooperate, understand?” Rhett hoped Link could read his true feelings in his expression, and apparently he did, because Link nodded a tiny bit. “Good. I’ll be back in a bit.”

Rhett left and locked the apartment door behind him. “Fuck.” He rubbed his hands through his hair in agitation, making his curls stand up in all directions. There was an empty soda bottle that someone had discarded outside the apartment, and Rhett kicked it across the factory floor. It didn’t make him feel any better. “Fuck!”

Neither did the beautiful, syrupy golden light cascading through the windows as he crossed to the stairs to Demetrius’s office.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Demetrius shut his laptop as Rhett entered. “How’s our guest?”

Rhett shrugged. “The same. Reads a lot, doesn’t talk much. He was real unhappy about seeing Portelli.”

“To be honest, I wasn’t thrilled about it either,” Demetrius admitted with a scowl. “He’s under strict orders not to do anything but take the pictures and then wait outside. You let me know if he does anything else.”

“Yes, sir.”

“You got those receipts?”

Rhett pulled out his wallet and extracted the receipts. Demetrius read them over. “Mmhmm, mmhmm… a sewing kit?”

“You know those cranes he makes?” Rhett asked. “He’s trying to make a thousand and he wanted a needle and thread so he can string them up. I took out the scissors and tape measure.” He’d also taken the drawstring out of the pajama pants. They had an elastic waist, anyway.

“That’s fine.” Demetrius stuffed the receipts into his pocket. “He probably can’t make much trouble with a needle.”

“I don’t think he’d try,” Rhett said. “I think he’s just waiting it out.”

“Speaking of which...” Demetrius began. “Negotiations are still ongoing. No estimate on when they’ll be over.”

“Understood.”

Demetrius opened his laptop back up. “Get out of here, McLaughlin.”

“Yes, sir.” Rhett left, closing the door behind him.


	12. Chapter 12

Portelli was sitting at Rhett’s desk outside the apartment, playing some stupid game on his phone. He looked up when Rhett approached.

“Kind of a little bitch, ain’t he?” he said.

Rhett halted. “What?”

“Neal.” Portelli nodded towards the apartment. “He’s a real pussy. Flinched every time I got near him.”

Rhett gaped at him, open mouthed. “You kidnapped him and beat him up,” he said finally.

Portelli scoffed. “That wasn’t nothin’.”

 _You broke his nose! You scarred his face!_ Rhett shouted in his mind. In real life, though, he just said, “Whatever,” and let himself into the apartment.

Link was nowhere to be seen. Usually, depending on how long Rhett’s meeting went, Link would either still be eating or would have begun making his squares for origami. Since there was nowhere to hide but the bathroom, Rhett went and knocked on the closed door. “Link? You okay in there?”

No answer. Rhett tried again.

“Link?” 

Silence.

“Link, I’m coming in.” He opened the door and found Link crammed in the tiny space between the utility sink and the mop sink. He was shivering and breathing quickly, and his eyes were wide with fear. “Whoa. Okay.”

Rhett wasn’t entirely sure what to do with someone having a panic attack, but first things first. He settled on the worn linoleum floor in front of Link.

“Can you hear me?”

A minute nod.

“Did Portelli hurt you?”

A pause, then a tiny shake of his head.

“You’re just freaked out because of what he did before?”

Another nod, a little bigger this time.

“Okay.” Rhett took a breath. “Can I touch your hand?”

Nod.

Rhett reached out and took Link’s right hand. It was cool and clammy, with long slender fingers and bitten nails. Rhett sandwiched it between his own, bigger hands.

“So, the Hudson River, it’s pretty polluted when it runs through New York,” Rhett began. “I mean, it’s better than it used to be, but it’s still pretty bad. But if you go way, way north, like into the Adirondacks, upstream where it starts, it’s beautiful. It’s a lot smaller, and it’s so clear that you can see to the bottom, even when the water’s five feet deep. Every little pebble, every leaf. You ever been to the Adirondacks?”

Link shook his head. His breathing was slower and his eyes weren’t so wide, but he was still shaking.

“Ahh, you should!” Rhett said. “They’re amazing. But the Hudson. There’s a lot of places up there where they do guided tours, kayaks and rafts and all that, but my favorite thing was to go tubing. You ever gone tubing?”

“One time, at a waterpark,” Link said hesitantly.

“Yeah, so you know how chill it is, but imagine that instead of chlorine and a bunch of screaming kids, you have this beautiful clear cold mountain water and all these thick green trees. Pine trees, mostly. I don’t know what kind, but they’re so _green_ , like wildly, intensely green. So you get your tube--I like to get a fancy tube, with cupholders and a backrest--and you put on your swimsuit and your hat and your sunglasses with a strap so you don’t lose them, and you climb on and you start floating.” Rhett rubbed Link’s hand between his. “I want you to imagine with me, okay?”

Link squeezed Rhett’s hand, startling him. “Okay.” He closed his eyes.

Rhett closed his eyes, too. “So you’re in your tube, and the sun is hot and you’re warm all over, except your feet and your butt where they’re in the water. Maybe your hands, too, and you can dip your head back and get your hair wet, if you want. And if you really plan ahead, you can bring some beer.”

“I could go for a beer right about now,” Link muttered. Rhett laughed.

“It’s not even 11am, Link. But you know, you can do anything you want on the river. What kind of animals do you think you’d see?”

“Um, a hawk?” Link guessed.

“Sure.” The two men took a slow float down an imaginary river, and when they ended a few minutes later, Link’s breath had returned to normal and his hands only tembled a bit. They sat in silence for a moment.

Finally, Link said, “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” Rhett said. “I wasn’t sure that would work.” He realized he was still holding Link’s hand. It was warm now. He didn’t want to let go, but he did. Link took it back, a little regretfully, Rhett thought.

“Let’s do that sometime,” Link said. “When this is all over.”

Rhett smiled. “I’d like that.” He really, really would.

He just didn’t think it would be possible.


	13. Chapter 13

“What are you going to do when Portelli comes tomorrow morning?” Rhett asked. Link looked up from the table where he was stringing his cranes together.

“You can’t stay, right?” he asked. Rhett shook his head. “I didn’t think so. And I don’t really think I’d want you to.”

“Why not?”

“Because it’s really fucking demeaning, that’s why,” Link answered. “You ever have those dreams where you’re naked in class taking a test you haven’t studied for? It’s kind of like that. Like, if I could just wake up…” he shrugged and picked up another crane.

“Usually I dream that I’m trying to drive from the passenger seat or the back seat, and I can’t reach the brakes,” Rhett said. “My dad told me once that’s a classic ‘you aren’t in control of your life’ dream.”

Link cut a thread with his nail clippers. “Well, he’s right, isn’t he? You _aren’t_ in control right now.”

“Ha!” Rhett threw back his head in a laugh. “Yeah, that’s true. I never really put that together before. Man, I miss him.”

“When did he pass?” Link asked.

“Oh, he’s not dead,” Rhett said. “I’ve just been keeping my distance from my parents and my brother and his family since I got involved in all this. They think I’m working way up north in Canada installing turbines on a windfarm, but I actually steal all the stories and pictures from some guy’s blog.”

Link snorted. “You better donate to that guy’s Patreon.”

“I don’t think he has one.”

“Then tell him to make one, because you owe him _big_ ,” Link said. He went to the wall, where a quadruple thickness of thread was strung between two protruding screws about four feet apart. Link tied the newest string of cranes to the ones already there, and did a calculation in his head. “So that’s six hundred up there so far, and I have at least another hundred already folded.”

“So what’s your wish gonna be?” Rhett asked.

Link threaded the needle. “I haven’t decided yet.”

“ _Really_?” Rhett was incredulous. It seemed obvious.

“You have to be careful with wishes, Rhett. Gotta make sure they don’t backfire or cause a lot of unintended consequences.” Link counted out a pile of cranes and began stringing them up.

“I’ll take your word for it.” Rhett had always been more of a thriller or historical novel guy than a fantasy reader. “Can I give you a suggestion, though?”

“About my wish?” Link looked up and stabbed himself in the thumb. “Ow!” He stuck the injured digit into his mouth.

“No, about Portelli.”

“Oh,” Link said in disgust. “Yeah, I guess.”

“He gets off on making people uncomfortable, so try to hide of much of that as you can. And at least you know what to expect tomorrow.”

Link stared at him for a second and pulled the pad of his thumb out of his mouth. “That’s it?”

“Uh, yes?”

“I don’t think that’s actually as helpful as you think it is, but thanks.”

“Okay, how about this.” Rhett tried again. “I’ll come back as quickly as I can.”

Link smiled at him. “ _That_ actually does sound helpful.”

“And do you want a bandaid for that?” The first aid kit was right outside the door, along with all the other supplies they needed but that Link wasn’t allowed access to.

“Nah. I’m tougher than I look.”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Rhett had to grudgingly give Portelli a little credit. He didn’t bring McMuffins the next day.

He brought McGriddles.

On the other hand, he did leave Link crumpled on the couch, shaking under his blanket. Willen always made Link upset, but that was probably more due to the situation than anything else--Rhett was sure Willen wasn’t going out of his way to make Link uncomfortable. He’d always been very professional. Also very creepy, but in a professional way.

Link’s reaction after Portelli left worried Rhett. In the sixteen days that Link had been locked in the apartment, he’d gone through a lot of emotional turmoil, and Rhett had been impressed at how consistently he seemed to bounce back. But Portelli was cruel just to be cruel, and his comments to Rhett about how Link was scared of him made Rhett very, very uneasy. He couldn’t do anything to prevent it, though. The most he could do was try to comfort Link afterwards.

So he sat at the end of the couch, where the toe of one of Link’s moon socks poked out. “Is there anything I can do?” Rhett asked.

There was a lot of shuffling around and Link’s swollen, tear-stained face emerged. “Can you do another guided meditation?”

“A what?”

“Guided meditation,” Link said. “It’s a pretty common relaxation technique.”

“Is it?” said Rhett, surprised. “I just wanted to distract you.”

“Distract me again.” Link shuddered. “Ugh, I hate him.” He wiggled around a little more and ended up with his back flush against the back of the couch, and the top of his head against Rhett’s thigh. Rhett sat frozen as Link reached out to take his hand. He couldn’t believe how quickly things had changed between them. Link hadn’t asked--he just grabbed Rhett’s hand like it was something they did now.

“Anything specific you want to imagine?” Rhett asked when he could speak. Link shook his head and closed his eyes, so Rhett began.

“People always think of the prairie as being gone, and it is, mostly, but here and there are places that have never been plowed, never been planted. Virgin prairie. There’s national parks that preserve it, but there’s also little pockets here and there that have hung on, just by chance. There’s one in Kansas City. You ever been there?”

“A couple times, for business,” Link said. “Ate a lot of barbecue.”

“There’s lots of barbecue to eat there,” Rhett agreed. “But there’s this park that has a big patch of native prairie. Within city limits! The family that owned it just harvested the grass for hay, and when they quit, the power company took over caring for it because the power lines go right over.”

Link’s brow furrowed. “That’s a weird partnership.”

“I’m not mad about it. So if you go in the spring, all the plants will be coming up. They have these plaques around that tell you what to look for, things you never see in a garden.”

Rhett kept talking, telling Link about the birds and reptiles you could see on the prairie, and how the grass grew taller and taller throughout the year, until it was as tall as Rhett, and how you could stand on a ridge and watch the wind make it wave like the ocean.

He kept going even after Link’s shaking stopped and his breathing evened. Rhett looked down at Link. His black eyes had faded almost completely away. If Rhett didn’t know he had healing bruises, he’d probably just think Link was tired. 

Rhett had grown absurdly fond of Link. Without thinking, he reached over and brushed a lock of hair back from Link’s forehead. Link flinched and his eyes snapped open. Rhett snatched his hand back.

“Sorry, sorry,” he said. “I shouldn’t--”

“Rhett, no.” Link twisted awkwardly and caught one of Rhett’s hands in each of his. “It’s okay. I was just startled.” He swallowed hard. “You… you can touch me.”

“You want a hug?” Rhett asked.

Link nodded vigorously. “Please.” There was something desperate in his eyes that made Rhett’s stomach clench.

“Then sit up, because this position is awful.” Rhett helped haul Link into a sitting position. When Link was nestled against his side, Rhett wrapped his arms around him. “That good?”

“It’s very good.” Link rested his head on Rhett’s shoulder. “I wish I met you in a different way.”

Rhett’s heart broke at that. He pulled Link closer. “Me, too.”

“Rhett. Am I gonna be okay?”

There were a lot of different kinds of ‘okay’, Rhett thought. “Physically? Yeah, probably. But you’re probably gonna have nightmares for a long time.”

Link laughed, humorlessly. “I already do. Then I wake up and I’m still here.”

There was another, bigger, more important question that Link didn’t ask, but Rhett answered it anyway. “You’re gonna get out of here.”

Link sighed. “How can you be so sure? You don’t even really know how the negotiations are going.”

“Demetrius said something about ‘non-monetary assets’ coming into play,” Rhett said. “Whatever the fuck _that_ means. But I’m sure because I’ll get you out of here myself, if I have to.”

Link pulled back, wide-eyed. “Rhett!”

Rhett took him by the shoulders. “Link, I swear. This is wrong, it’s all wrong. You shouldn’t be here. You didn’t do anything to deserve this. That first night, when I fixed up your face, I knew that I’d, uh, switched teams? My alliance had changed? Whatever. I was on your side. Like reverse Stockholm Syndrome.”

“So what are you gonna do?”

Rhett groaned. He rubbed his face and beard in frustration. “I don’t know! If you just get ransomed and go home safely, that would be the best, but who knows how long that’ll take? Your dad’s a stubborn jackass.”

Link laughed. “You sure got him figured out.”

“So we could wait, but the longer you’re here, the more dangerous it is. Someone could find out about us, one of us could get hurt, all kinds of things could go wrong.”

“Yeah,” Link whispered. 

“I could break you out and take you home, but then I’d be a fugitive from the law _and_ these assholes,” Rhett said. “Which would suck, and wouldn’t last very long, anyway.”

“Let’s run away to somewhere that doesn’t have an extradition treaty with the US,” Link said dreamily. “Somewhere tropical.”

Rhett snorted. “I like the way you think.” He got serious. “But I’ve been thinking about this a lot. Like, it’s almost all I think about: how do we get out of this? Because it’s us against them, now.”

“I know.”

“So this is what I think. You’re not gonna like it. I like it even less.” Rhett gave Link another squeeze. “I think the next best thing to you getting safely ransomed is for us to leave and go right to a police station and turn ourselves in.”

Link opened his blue eyes wide again, in horror this time. “Rhett, _no_!”

“Yes!” Rhett was the upset one now. He could tell his face was flushed, and tears were welling in his eyes. “There’s no way out for me, Link! I’ve thought about it a million times, from every angle. If I try to run, they’ll chase me. Maybe go after my family, too. I’d rather go to prison than let that happen. If you get ransomed, you’re going to have to give a statement, and then the police will be after me. I can’t run, Link, I don’t know how. There’s no way for this to end without me in prison, back here in a worse situation, or dead. I really think my best bet is to give myself up, turn state’s evidence, and try to get a reduced sentence.” With every word, he became more and more convinced it was the right choice.

“God, Rhett.” Link threw his arms around Rhett’s neck and held him tight. “I hate this. You’re right, there’s no way out. There’s never been a way out.”

“Nope.” Rhett rested his cheek on Link’s hair. It smelled like generic dollar store shampoo, some vague ‘rain shower’ sort of scent. “So, knowing I’m going to turn myself in to the police either way, do you want to wait longer on the ransom, or do you want me to break you out?”

“Whoa.” Link took a deep breath. “That’s a hell of a choice.”

“I know. I’m sorry.”

“Can I just stay here with you like this, and make my choice later?”

“Yeah. I like that.” Rhett smiled at Link, who smiled back. They were sad smiles, but they were smiles nonetheless.

They sat on the couch together for a long time.


	14. Chapter 14

They were like drowning men, desperately trying to grab on to something solid, unaware and uncaring that all they were doing was dragging each other down.

The days continued on as before--Rhett would return from his morning meeting with Demetrius and spend time with Link to calm him down. Then he would sit outside and work on his laptop for a while before going out on his afternoon errands.

When he returned, Rhett would find that Link had been hard at work on his cranes. It seemed like he was trying to finish them as quickly as possible, even though he told Rhett he still didn’t have his wish quite figured out yet.

The evenings consisted of sitting on the couch together, arms wrapped around each other, talking about the books they’d both read, or just not talking at all.

Link refused to make a decision about whether he wanted to wait longer for the ransom, or whether he wanted Rhett to break him out. This, of course, was essentially a vote for waiting. Rhett knews things that Link didn’t, and he knew that waiting was becoming more dangerous each day. He didn’t try to argue with Link or try to change his mind. Rhett wanted to give Link as much agency as he could, and he knew that if he said, “We have to go _now,_ ” Link wouldn’t argue.

So Rhett just did as much prepwork as he could so that when the time came, they could go.

Because the truth was, he was enjoying his time with Link. It had been a long time since Rhett had anyone to spend time with like that, to share books and couches and personal space and meals with, someone who was there when he went to sleep and there when he woke up.

It was just a shame that it was in these circumstances.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

It took a couple days, but Rhett was eventually able to figure out what the ‘non-monetary assets’ were: a couple of people who were currently serving life in prison for an impressive list of crimes, including multiple murders. None of his sources mentioned any names, but based on the amount Rhett’s grandboss (or great-grandboss) is willing to drop the ransom by for each one, he had to figure they’re pretty prominent. Rhett already knew he was working for bad people, but it was still a little sobering to realize just _how_ bad.

He didn’t tell Link about it. If Link had made his choice, so had Rhett. He was going to do everything he could to protect Link, even if that meant keeping him in the dark about some things. Link already knew these people were capable of kidnapping and assault. There was no reason to freak him out more than he already was.

“What do you want to eat when you get out of here?” Rhett asked. It was the evening of the twentieth day. He was stretched out on the couch, Link lying on top of him with his head on Rhett’s chest and an arm around Rhett’s neck.

“A salad,” Link said dreamily. “Spring mix with carrots and radishes and bean sprouts. And raspberry vinaigrette. I never want to see another fast food burger as long as I live.”

“Oh, you don’t really mean that.”

“Okay, maybe not,” Link conceded. “I don’t want to see another fast food burger for a really, really long time.”

He didn’t ask what Rhett was looking forward to eating. For one thing, Rhett got out every day, and as for the future… prison food wasn’t known for being particularly good.

Instead, Link asked, “Are you scared?”

“About going to prison?”

Link nodded.

“Well, yeah.” Rhett sighed and rubbed his hand across Link’s shoulder. “I mean, who wouldn’t be? It’s _supposed_ to be scary. But I can make it through. The thing that scares me most is not knowing how long it’s gonna be.”

“I wish it wasn’t like this,” Link said.

“Me too. I’ve done enough illegal things that I was probably headed there even before all this, though. It’s easier to ignore the bad things you’ve done when they’re all numbers on a computer screen, you know? But then I think about how many peoples’ lives I’ve ruined by fucking up their finances, probably sending them into bankruptcy, making them lose their homes…” Rhett sighed again. “I’m not a good person.”

“You’re good to me.” Link ran his fingers through the hair on Rhett’s nape. There wasn’t anything sexual in it, just the warm physical comfort of another body.

“Yeah, well, you’re the first, uh… I don’t want to call you a ‘victim’, but--”

“I feel pretty fuckin’ victimized, Rhett,” Link cut in.

“Okay, fair,” Rhett admitted. “The first _victim_ I’ve really been involved with. Like, I’ve gone out on jobs with Willen and Portelli before, but only as a driver or to disable alarm systems, that sort of thing. Nothing directly involving a person.”

They lay on the sagging couch in silence for a while. “I’m sorry,” Link said finally.

Rhett raised a dark eyebrow. “For what? None of this is your fault.”

“I know, it’s just… I know you think you’re a bad person, and yeah, you’ve done bad things, but that’s not all you are,” Link said. “I mean, the first night I was here and you fixed my face, you were so gentle. And you were nice to me. Got Chipotle and talked to me like I was a regular person. I didn’t trust you, though.”

“Honestly? I don’t blame you in the least.”

“Well, you _did_ lie to me about your name,” Link pointed out. “I thought y’all were doing some kind of good cop/bad cop routine, and you were the good cop. I didn’t want to play along.”

Rhett laughed. “Is _that_ why you were giving me the silent treatment?”

“Yeah, but then I figured out how stupid that was. I’m not like an enemy spy or something. You’re not keeping me here to get information out of me. I’m just an asset. A thing.”

“ _Link_.” Rhett ran a hand through his salt and pepper hair. “You’re not a thing. You’re a person.”

“To you, maybe, but not to them.”

“You know we can leave any time you want, right?”

Link sighed. His fingers kept combing through Rhett’s hair. “I’m scared, Rhett.”

“Of what, baby?” Rhett blinked. Where on earth had that come from?

Either Link didn’t notice, or he didn’t care. “I’m scared to stay. I’m sure you know why.”

“Yeah.”

“But if we leave…” There was a long pause before he spoke again. “You turn yourself in, and then what? A big investigation and trial. I have to testify and be in the middle of a media circus for ages. You go to prison for who knows how long. And that… is that how it ends for us?”

“ _Is_ there an us?” Rhett asked. “Do you honestly think we’d have any sort of relationship if we weren’t locked in here together? Or would we just go our separate ways?”

Link lifted his head and met Rhett’s eyes. “Don’t you want to find out?”

Rhett pushed Link’s hair back from his forehead and gave him a sad little smile. There were a lot of those lately. “Guess we’ll find out one way or another, baby.”


	15. Chapter 15

Another day of ‘ongoing negotiations’. Demetrius made it sound like things were proceeding as they had before, but Rhett caught something in his tone, or maybe his body language, that made him suspect something was up.

On the plus side, Link was becoming less afraid of Portelli. Rhett no longer found him paralyzed with panic, but he was always shaky and anxious and furious when Rhett returned. The guided meditations gradually got shorter and less elaborate, but they’d become a daily ritual.

“Rhett, look.” Link held up a string of cranes. “I’m done.”

Rhett got out of his chair and watched as Link tied the final string up with the others. The cranes were gray and white and brown, with a few pops of color from ads that came tucked in with the newspapers.

“Did you figure out your wish?” Rhett asked.

“Mmhmm,” Link said. “I wished that, when this is all over and you and I are both home safe, we can still spend time together.”

Rhett was dumbfounded. “You put me in your wish?”

“Of course.” Link turned to him, eyes bright behind his glasses. “You’re trapped here, just like me.”

“I don’t… Link… I…” Rhett’s voice broke and tears prickled his eyes. No one had ever done anything so generous and thoughtful for him. “Thank you. Really and truly, thank you.”

Link smiled at him, a real smile, bright as the sun he hadn’t seen in three weeks. Rhett smiled back and pulled him into a hug, there in front of the thousand cranes.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

“Boss wants to see you,” Portelli said when Rhett returned that afternoon.

“O… okay,” Rhett said. Demetrius never wanted to see him in the afternoon. That was when he did all his serious business stuff. Rhett deposited the books and grocery bag he was carrying on the folding table and walked across the warehouse floor to the stairs.

Demetrius’s door was closed. Rhett knocked. “Come in!” Rhett entered and Demetrius pointed to the chair in front of his desk. Rhett sat.

“There’s going to be a change in your role, McLaughlin. I’m reassigning you.”

“Sir?” Rhett couldn’t believe his ears.

“You’re too involved. This situation isn’t working, either. His fucking father won’t budge. Stubborn bastard.” Demetrius scowled.

“But… what’s going to happen to Link now?” It was a very dangerous question to ask. Rhett knew he was expected to accept his new assignment, whatever it was, without question.

“You don’t need to worry about that. Get all your things and pack up your van. I’ll give you your new assignment then and you will follow it immediately. You are not to enter that apartment again, do you understand?”

Rhett’s heart was broken. He couldn’t imagine leaving Link, with his brilliant smile and thousand cranes, without at least saying goodbye. “Yes, sir.”

“Get out of here.” Rhett was dismissed.

He slowly walked down the stairs from the office. He’d been planning an escape for a while, but had always assumed that he’d be _with_ Link when it happened. Now there was a change of plans.

Portelli was still outside the apartment, of course. Rhett was sure he had orders not to let him in, so he didn’t even try. Instead, Rhett gathered up his laptop, cell phone, and some other belongings that had accumulated outside the apartment, and wordlessly walked the three blocks to his van.

He needed some time to think, so he climbed into the back with the tools and made himself as comfortable as possible in the little space there. He pulled his laptop out and went to his usual sources for information on Link’s ransom.

What he found made his blood run cold.

Rhett read that negotiations had completely stalled. Rhett’s grandboss had issued a statement that unless some concessions were made, they were going to harm Link.

It was what one did with a hostage, of course, but he couldn’t let it happen. Rhett slammed the laptop shut, grabbed a crowbar, and ran back to the warehouse.


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter features blood and violence.

Rhett peered around the door. Willen and Portelli were both outside the apartment. The door was open, and Willen was messing with the electronic lock while Portelli leafed through the instruction manual. Rhett snorted a little in spite of the awfulness of the situation. It wasn’t _that_ hard to reset the code.

Unfortunately, there was no way he could overpower both of them, and he had doubts that he could even take one of them on. A crowbar was a powerful tool, but he knew Willen always carried multiple weapons, and Portelli was just indiscriminately violent.

If he had to pick one to wallop with the crowbar, though, it would absolutely be Portelli.

Rhett lurked in the shadows by the door until they figured out the lock. They each tried it a couple times, and then Willen picked up a bunch of equipment from the folding table (Rhett squinted, but couldn’t make out what it was), and walked off towards the stairs, leaving Portelli alone. He sat in Rhett’s desk chair and pulled out his phone. His back was to Rhett and soon he was engrossed in his game.

Perfect.

Rhett crept up behind him, silent in his sneakers. He swung the crowbar in a perfect, beautiful arc towards Portelli’s head. His aim wasn’t quite true, but even the glancing blow resulted in a sickening crunch. The crowbar vibrated in Rhett’s hands and Portelli crumpled on the ground. Rhett couldn’t see any blood and Portelli was still breathing.

“Whoa,” he breathed.

As much as he hated Portelli, Rhett was not a violent man and couldn’t bring himself to hit him again. Instead, he went to the door and tried the old code.

913786

Nothing, just as he suspected. Rhett knocked.

“Link?”

He tried again, pounding harder this time.

“Link!”

No answer. Rhett whacked the crowbar against the lock in frustration, smashing it. It didn’t matter. He’d installed the door himself, and he knew how strong it was. There was no way he could get in with just a crowbar.

However, he was the one who had inspected the illegal apartment once Demetrius made the warehouse their base of operations. He knew it better than anyone else, and he knew it’s weak spot.

From the outside, the apartment was a slapdash box of plywood and particle board scraps tucked in the corner of the warehouse. The electricity was supplied by an extension cord that entered through a little hole in the back of the side wall.

Rhett went to the back of the apartment and followed the extension cord to the outlet in the wall and unplugged it. That would plunge the apartment into darkness and probably scare the crap out of Link (assuming he was still in there… and conscious), but Rhett really didn’t need to get electrocuted during this. He had enough problems already.

He stuck the crowbar into the little hole and pried. It didn’t even take five minutes to make a hole big enough to stick his head through. Rhett pulled out his phone and used it as a flashlight. He couldn’t see Link.

“Link?” he called. No answer. Rhett picked the crowbar up again and resumed his demolition. Ten adrenaline fueled minutes later, he had a hole big enough to crawl through. Ignoring the splinters that snagged his clothes, he clambered through.

Rhett turned the phone flashlight back on and looked around. Link was nowhere to be seen, but there were drips and smears and little puddles of something dark on the floor and couch. He looked closer.

Blood.

“Oh god oh god oh god.” There was only one place Link could be.

The bathroom was padlocked shut, but the cheap hasp was no match for the crowbar. The bathroom had its own light switch, and Rhett flipped it on.

Link was crumpled on the floor. There was blood smeared all over the sink and puddled around his head. He had one of the cheap white t-shirts held to his throat. Rhett fell to his knees.

“Oh god, Link, what did they do to you?” Link opened his eyes a little and shook his head. “C’mon, baby, let me see.” Rhett gently pulled Link’s hands away and removed the shirt.

There was a long, gaping cut across Link’s throat. It wasn’t bleeding heavily and didn’t look very deep, but there was so much blood smeared everywhere that Rhett couldn’t be sure.

“ _Fuck_.” Rhett put the shirt back. “Can you get up? Can you walk?”

“Think so.” Link’s voice was quieter and shakier than Rhett had ever heard it before, and there was something strange about it that Rhett couldn’t identify. He helped Link up and retrieved his shoes, which had been under the couch for weeks.

“Anything you want to take?” Rhett asked.

“No.” 

And with that, Rhett helped him through the hole in the wall. Once they were out, he carefully tied the shirt around Link’s neck. It was almost completely soaked with blood, as was the front of Link’s sriracha shirt. “Shit. Okay, my van is three blocks away. You can’t walk around like that in the middle of the afternoon. Shit. Shit.” He walked in a circle, running his hands through his hair. “You’re gonna have to hide. It’s only gonna be a minute.”

“Where?” Link was trembling and pale. Rhett didn’t know if it was from blood loss or shock. Probably both.

“There’s a little alcove outside. Be a good place to hide from the wind if you were a smoker. Just… stay back in it, and when I pull up and open the door, I want you to get inside as quick as you can, okay?”

Link nodded. Rhett opened the door and peered outside. There was no one in sight. “Okay.” He grabbed Link into a tight hug and kissed his forehead. “Be brave, baby. This is almost over.” Link hugged him back. Rhett grabbed his hand and pulled him to the alcove. “Be right back.”

Rhett sprinted to his van, not caring if anyone saw him or noticed the blood on his hands and shirt. He launched himself into the driver’s seat and in just a few moments parked in front of the warehouse. He hopped out and threw the back door open. Link stumbled to the van and Rhett helped him in and slammed the door.

“We’re going to the hospital,” Rhett said. “You lost a lot of blood.”

Link sat slumped with his back against the van door. Rhett could see him in the rearview mirror. “What’d you do to Portelli?” he rasped.

“Smashed him in the head with a crowbar.”

“ _Good_.” Link sounded intensely satisfied. “That book you gave me… Slow Horses, where they were gonna kill the kid live on the internet?”

“Yeah.” Rhett was surprised that Link could talk with his injury, although there was something very off about his voice. Maybe it was more superficial than it looked.

“That’s what they did, set up a video feed to my dad. They were in ski masks and gloves and Willen pulled my head back and Portelli cut me. I could see my dad watching.”

“Jesus Christ.” Rhett thought he might actually vomit. He swallowed hard. “Baby, I’m so sorry. I should have gotten you out of there sooner.”

“Not your fault. Wasn’t your choice.” Link’s eyes were closed and he slumped against the van door. Rhett tore his eyes away from the rearview mirror and kept speeding towards the hospital.

He pulled into the emergency bay a few minutes later, parked, and ran inside. A team of doctors and nurses rushed out and carefully got the now unconscious Link onto a stretcher. Rhett stayed to talk to one of the nurses.

“His name is Charles Lincoln Neal the Third, but he goes by Link. He was kidnapped and he’s been held for ransom for three weeks, and, uh, I was one of the captors. I want to turn myself in, so could you call the police?”

The nurse just stared at him, eyes wide and mouth open.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> END OF ACT I


	17. Chapter 17

One of the things Rhett had done while preparing to escape with Link was to find a really, really good criminal defense lawyer. Her name was Stevie Levine and she was about ten years younger than Rhett, but her track record was incredibly impressive (As were the fees she charged, but Rhett had invested wisely and could afford it).

She came to the police station to meet him. It was the morning after the escape and Rhett was nearly frantic. None of the police officers would tell him anything, either about Link or about whether they’d be able to arrest Demetrius, Portelli, and Willen. Rhett gave the police the address of the warehouse and their descriptions when he turned himself in before demanding to speak with his lawyer.

“Mr. McLaughlin.” Rhett shook her delicate hand awkwardly due to the handcuffs he was wearing. Ms. Levine had strawberry blonde hair pulled back into a chignon and wore a cream silk blouse and gray wool trousers. She looked both incredibly competent and incredibly stylish.

“Have you heard anything about Link? Is he okay?” Rhett asked. He’d worried so much about Link that he’d barely had a thought for his own future.

Ms. Levine raised an eyebrow and gave him a small smile. “He’s fine. He lost a lot of blood, but the cut missed everything important.”

“Oh, thank god.” Rhett covered his face and collapsed forward onto the table. Tears of relief escaped from behind his eyelids. “I was so worried.”

“That was a hell of a thing you did,” Ms. Levine said. “I have to say, I’m impressed.”

Rhett lifted his head up and wiped his eyes on his sleeve. “I should have done it sooner, but he didn’t want to… he was scared. And I didn’t want to take away any more of his agency, you know?”

“I understand.” Ms. Levine pulled out a laptop and started typing away. “I’m curious, though. At what point did you decide to change sides, as it were?”

“Uh, pretty much right away, I guess,” Rhett said. “I already hated those other assholes and I didn’t really want anything to do with their stupid kidnapping plot, so when they brought Link in and he was all beat to hell, I already felt pretty bad for him. Demetrius told me it was my job to keep him happy and healthy, and that I should pretend to be his friend, but I wasn’t pretending. He really was… well, at least while we were in that room together…” Rhett stared down at the table. Now that he was out of it, the situation seemed almost like a dream. Their relationship wasn’t one that was easily defined. “I don’t know what Link would say about it.”

Ms. Levine finished typing and looked up. “I don’t believe he’s said _anything_. He did just have surgery to repair a throat wound.”

“Can I send him a card or something?” Rhett asked. 

“You are not going to have any contact with Lincoln Neal for the foreseeable future, at least until this goes to trial and everything is finished,” Ms. Levine said. “Maybe not after that, either.”

It was the answer that Rhett both feared and expected. He nodded and felt tears slip down his face again.

“I’m sorry. I can tell that the two of you bonded deeply during this, and I promise I’ll do my best to restore your ability to speak with him. But first, let’s go back to the beginning of all this.”

Rhett spoke with Ms. Levine (who invited him to call her Stevie) for a couple hours, and then spoke with a police detective for even longer. He learned that Demetrius, Willen, and Portelli had all been arrested, and that Portelli had been taken to the hospital (a different hospital than the one Link was at) with a fractured skull, which made Rhett secretly proud. He also learned their full names for the first time, which were Grigory Demetrius, Arthur Willen, and Ethan Portelli.

“Ethan, really?” Rhett asked.

The detective shrugged. “That’s what it says here.”

“Huh.”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Rhett ended up being charged with conspiracy, second degree kidnapping, and a number of lesser charges, mostly related to his computer crimes.

“This trial is going to be a shitshow. Joint trials always are,” Stevie said. Rhett and his three associates were all being tried at the same time. “But you’re going to come off pretty good. You’re willing to testify against your co-conspirators, you weren’t involved with the actual kidnapping, you treated Link well, and you broke him out. The jury’s gonna love you.”

“Mm.” Rhett wasn’t really listening. Stevie wasn’t saying anything new. Rhett’s thoughts were stuck on Link. He’d attended Rhett’s preliminary hearing as a witness, and it was the first time Rhett had seen him in the three months since the breakout.

Link looked _so_ good. He was clean and sleek. His hair was styled and he had new glasses, dark rectangular frames this time. He had on a tan blazer with a gray roll neck sweater underneath. Rhett wasn’t surprised to see him wearing something high-necked. The scar across his throat was probably still pretty raw. Apparently his larynx had been damaged, and he needed nearly a hundred stitches to fix everything.

Rhett, on the other hand, was wearing handcuffs, slip on sneakers, and a slightly too short orange jumpsuit that said INMATE on the back in bold black letters. His beard was untrimmed and his curls were every which way. He was not looking his best.

He was terrified to see Link. Rhett had no idea how he viewed his time in captivity, if he still liked Rhett, or if he was disgusted that Rhett hadn’t saved him before he was harmed. Did Link view him as a friend? Did he still stand by his wish that they could spend time together once this was all over, or did he want Rhett to go to prison forever and never see him again? Rhett’s insides were perpetually twisted in anxiety over it, and Stevie didn’t have any information for him.

But when Link took the stand, he smiled at Rhett, and it warmed Rhett right down to his feet. A little of the anxiety knotted in his stomach relaxed. It was one less thing to worry about, and as far as Rhett was concerned, after Link being safe, it was the most important thing. He was ridiculously invested in their relationship, even though it had only been for three weeks. Rhett was aware that the intensity of his feelings was due to the intensity of the situation, but he thought that there was still the seed of a real friendship under all that.

When Link was sworn in and began his testimony, though, Rhett felt a flare of guilt. Not because of his role in Link’s captivity--he dealt with that guilt every day--but because there was a hoarseness to Link’s voice that hadn’t been there before. 

He was a good witness, even though he looked incredibly nervous and his hands shook. His answers were clear and concise and he didn’t get bogged down with unnecessary details, and when he was asked about Rhett’s role in his captivity, his response made Rhett’s heart soar.

Yes, Rhett was involved in the kidnapping and ransom plot, but Link didn’t hold him responsible in any way. Quite the opposite, actually. Rhett had done everything in his power to keep Link safe and healthy, and his companionship had made the whole ordeal much more bearable for Link, and Link would be grateful for the rest of his life.

It was like he was speaking directly to Rhett, trying to reassure him, and Rhett loved him for it.

And now, a week later, Rhett still couldn’t concentrate. All he could think about was Link. It was starting to become a problem.

“Sorry, Stevie. What were you saying?”


	18. Chapter 18

The wheels of justice moved slowly, mostly because Rhett’s actions had kicked off a huge investigation into a lot of things that he had nothing to do with. For example, apparently Willen and Portelli had been involved in a series of abductions and beatings about ten years ago, and Demetrius had ties to several open missing persons cases where the missing person was presumed to have met with foul play.

“That’s, uh, that’s… _fuck_ ,” was all Rhett could say when Stevie told him. None of it surprised him, really, but it was sobering to get his suspicions confirmed.

“Yeah, real nice crowd you fell in with,” she said. “Although they probably should have figured out that you were a really poor choice for this particular job. Shoulda kept you on computer jockey duty.”

“They always treated me like the weird kid from class that nobody really gets along with but your mom makes you invite him to your birthday anyway,” Rhett mumbled. “It’s not like they ever tried to get to know me. Not that I’m complaining.”

Stevie nodded. “Anyway, this just makes things look better for you.”

“I guess.” Being stuck in limbo was killing Rhett. He couldn’t go to trial until the others had all their charges figured out. “I just want to get this over with. I hate being in jail. It’s just, like, constant fucking chaos. New guys coming in all the time, freaking out, it’s awful. Always loud, always guys getting into fights. And there’s nothing to _do_. I figure prison is going to be a lot more stable, right? Same guys, mostly, and you can get a job and they have things you can do. That’s what a guy I was talking to yesterday said, anyway.”

“I guess.” Stevie shrugged. “I’ve never been.”

“Ugh.”

“Just try to be patient, okay?” Stevie gathered up her things. “I’ll be in touch.”

“Okay.”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Rhett’s trial didn’t take place until eleven months after the breakout.

He hadn’t heard anything about Link since his preliminary hearing. If Stevie knew anything, she didn’t tell him. There had been a few stories on the news and in the paper right after everything happened, but they didn’t really tell Rhett anything he didn’t already know.

Rhett hadn’t cut his hair or trimmed his beard since he was arrested, and Stevie had to fight with him tooth and nail over them. “You are _not_ going to make a good impression if you look like you’ve been living in the woods like Theodore Kaczynski!” she hissed at him. “Why are you being so fucking stubborn about this, Rhett?”

“Because it’s all I _have_!” Rhett gestured to his jumpsuit and slip on sneakers, the same that every other guy in the jail wore. He’d always had a pretty simple style, just jeans and hoodies for the most part, but he hated not having any individuality.

Stevie eventually won the argument over the beard. Rhett agreed to trim it, but he refused to get a haircut. He had to draw the line somewhere.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Rhett was nearly sick with nerves the first day of the trial. It was the first time he was going to see Link, Demetrius, Willen, and Portelli (who had recovered well from his fractured skull) since the preliminary hearing. The latter three he didn’t care about, but thinking about seeing Link brought up the same worries that he had before the preliminary hearing. Had Link’s feelings changed? It had nearly been a year since his kidnapping. A lot could change in a year.

The actual legal proceedings weren’t that interesting. Each lawyer gave their opening statements, laying out the facts and their interpretations thereof for the jury. Rhett was relieved to find that Link’s lawyer, who seemed nearly as competent and stylish as Stevie, seemed like she was going to go light on him.

Link was there, but he didn’t speak. He looked much the same as he did at the preliminary hearing, all dark framed glasses and neatly brushed hair. Instead of a turtleneck sweater, though, he wore a suit and an open necked dress shirt with a silk scarf tied high on his throat underneath. Rhett had a sudden image of Link as a Beau Brummel-type Regency dandy, with a beautiful white linen cravat high on his neck. It was both absurd and delightful.

He only glanced over at Rhett once, but he smiled a little when he did. Rhett grinned back. For the most part, Link sat close to another man who had accompanied him into the courtroom. Rhett thought they were writing notes in a notebook that they passed back and forth. 

Rhett wondered who the guy was. He studied him closely. It wasn’t Link’s friend Alex, the one who took care of Jade. Alex was pale and blond, and this guy had black hair, olive skin, and a neat goatee. Rhett was relieved that Link had someone to support him, because Charles Neal certainly wasn’t.

Mr. Neal had an air of ‘I am an extremely important and busy person and these proceedings are beneath me’ that Rhett found very distasteful. It was almost insulting. He sat far away from Link and didn’t interact with him at all, as far as Rhett could tell.

When they went into recess, Rhett asked Stevie if she knew who Link’s companion was.

Stevie looked up from her papers. “I believe that’s his husband,” she said.

“His _husband_?” Rhett repeated, dumbfounded.

“Mmhmm.” She returned to her notes. “A friend from college, I think. Got back in touch after Link came home. Pretty whirlwind, I guess.”

“Yeah, really.” Rhett looked down into his lap, head spinning. _Married_? “Do you know what his name is?”

“Uh…” Stevie thought for a moment and tapped her pen on the table. “Rodrigo...something. Think his last name starts with an R, too.”

Being held captive and having your throat cut might make you think of your priorities in a different light, Rhett supposed, but it really seemed to him like Link had jumped into this. Of course, he had no idea what Link had been up to the past eleven months, and he didn’t know what his history with Rodrigo was, but _still_.

And there was something about the news that hurt him in a way that was hard to pinpoint. He’d grown so close to Link during their time in the apartment, and had thought of him so intensely every since, that it almost felt like a snub that he hadn’t been told. Link wasn’t allowed to contact him, though, any more than Rhett was allowed to contact him.

Rhett suddenly felt like he and Link were standing on opposite sides of a canyon, and it was getting deeper and wider every day.


	19. Chapter 19

The trial dragged on and on. Stevie was right, it was a shitshow. There was so much going on that Rhett could barely keep track of it all, and he’d _been there_. 

Link and Rodrigo attended every day. Link always wore something that covered his neck, and Rodrigo always kept close to him. Rhett was more than a little jealous, but he tried to think well of Rodrigo. Rhett could never hear them talking, and he didn’t know what they wrote in their notebook, but their body language made it clear that they were very fond of each other.

Finally, Link took the stand. Rhett noticed his hands shake, but he was as clear and well-spoken as ever. His voice was better than it had been at the preliminary hearing, but there was still a note of scratchiness to it. Rhett was incredibly proud of him. _Tougher than he looks_ , he thought with satisfaction.

Link’s testimony was hard for Rhett to hear. There were a lot of details he hadn’t known about, like just how many bruises Link had under his clothes the morning after the kidnapping. It was the first time Rhett had seen any of Willen’s pictures, and it _hurt_. He’d forgotten how awful Link had looked with his black eyes and swollen nose and bandaged cheekbone, and seeing him in his blue sky boxers with black and blue marks all over his legs and torso made Rhett feel even guiltier about the whole thing than he already did.

And when Link spoke about Rhett, it nearly broke Rhett’s heart. Link answered the questions simply and concisely, without editorializing, but his words were everything Rhett wanted to hear.

_He told me first thing that he would do everything he could to make it as least awful as possible, and he did._

_Rhett was a friend when I needed one the most._

_No, I don’t blame him for not helping me escape earlier. It wasn’t really his choice. He was trapped, too._

_I truly don’t think I would be alive if it weren’t for him._

_I owe him my life, and I could never thank him enough._

This time, though, it didn’t quite seem like he was speaking directly to Rhett.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~**~*~*~

Rhett learned a lot of other interesting things during the trial.

Mr. Neal hadn’t known how awful Link’s situation truly was. Willen, and later Portelli, positioned Link against a blank wall and carefully framed their shots to hide the rest of the apartment. All of Rhett’s receipts, and all the food receipts, were submitted as proof that Link was being taken care of. There were also a number of deceits higher up that made everything seem much rosier than they really were.

It also turned out that Mr. Neal was a stubborn, unpleasant bastard. He said he didn’t want to pay the ransom because he was afraid his other family members might also be kidnapped, and also due to “the principle of the thing.” He wouldn’t budge, Rhett’s great-grandboss (as it turned out) wouldn’t budge either, and the whole thing started to fall apart.

The video of Link getting his throat cut was played during Mr. Neal’s testimony. Rhett watched in horror. The camera turned on, showing Willen holding a wide eyed, terrified, pleading Link with his arms twisted behind his back. Portelli came into the frame, holding a box cutter. Willen grabbed Link’s hair and yanked his head back, and Portelli reached out and swiped the blade across his throat. There was a lot of blood. Willen dropped Link onto the floor and the camera turned off. It only took a few seconds.

Rhett would never, ever forget the noise Link made when the blade touched his neck or the sight of the blood spilling from the wound. He gulped back tears and looked over to Link’s usual spot. Thankfully, he wasn’t there. 

Mr. Neal’s testimony continued, but Rhett didn’t hear a word of it. He just pictured the video in his head, over and over, accompanied by a litany from his own heart.

_my fault my fault my fault_

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“You okay over there?” Stevie asked during the recess after Mr. Neal’s testimony.

Rhet shook his head. “That video…”

“Oof. Yeah, that was a bad one, and I’ve seen some shit.” Stevie sighed and met Rhett’s eyes. “I didn’t know they were going to play that. I would have warned you if I did.”

“I know.” Rhett kept his gaze down in his lap. “It’s just… I have nightmares about it, all the time. I’m too late and he’s lost too much blood, or Portelli catches us, or I can’t find the hospital. Now I have new things to have nightmares about.” He knew he’d be seeing it in his dreams that night.”

“Rhett…”

“And it’s my fault!” Rhett continued. “Do you have any idea how much I hate myself, Stevie? I could have prevented it, and I didn’t. Link got his _throat cut_ because of me! He almost _died_ because of me!” His face was flushed and angry.

“Rhett!” Stevie snapped at him. “Stop that. There’s no way you could have known it was going to happen. Hell, they weren’t even supposed to do that.”

Rhett blinked, startled out of his shame spiral. “What?”

“Yeah, I just found out,” Stevie said. “Portelli was just supposed to cut his face, something superficial, but he went for the throat instead. What a fucking psycho.”

“God.” Rhett dropped his face into his hands.

“I need you to focus on the fact that you _saved_ his life, Rhett. Link is alive. He’s fine, he’s safe, and it’s because of you, so I need to hear you say it, okay?”

“I saved Link,” Rhett said tonelessly. Technically, it was true, but it was still Rhett’s fault that he needed saving in the first place.

Stevie reached over and patted his hand. “Attaboy. Maybe one day you’ll even believe it.”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

“You did a good job,” Stevie said after Rhett finished his testimony. 

“Did I?” He couldn’t have told her a thing about it. The entire questioning had passed by him like a dream.

“Hit all the points you were supposed to, came off like a reasonable person, appropriately contrite...yeah, I’d say it was a success.” She grinned at him. “Did you see how mad the others were?”

“I was looking at Link, mostly.” Rhett set his elbows on the table and propped his chin in his hands. As usual, Link and Rodrigo spent most of the time passing their notebook back and forth. If Link happened to glance up and see Rhett looking at him, he’d smile a little, but Rodrigo always gave him a studiously neutral expression. Rhett kind of got the feeling that Rodrigo didn’t like him, and he couldn’t exactly blame the guy.

“You’re gonna have to let him go, Rhett,” Stevie said. “I _highly_ doubt that you’ll be allowed to have any contact with him during your sentence.”

“I know. I will.” It wasn’t the first time they’d had this conversation. Rhett just wanted to look at Link while he still had the chance. “Do you still think the trial will end on Wednesday?”

“I think closing arguments will be finished then, yes, and I’m guessing you’ll get the verdict no later than Friday. These joint trials are always more complicated, but the jury’s probably not going to want to come back Monday.”

Something occurred to Rhett. “I’m never going to get called for jury duty again, am I? Felons can’t serve, right?”

“Actually, because you’re not a sex offender, you’ll be eligible to serve on a jury once you’ve completed your sentence,” Stevie said. “California just changed that relatively recently.”

“Oh. Dang.”

“Sorry.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Felons should be able to serve on juries so people can truly be judged by their peers.


	20. Chapter 20

True to Stevie’s prediction, the verdicts and sentences were read Friday afternoon.

Demetrius, Willen, and Portelli each got between twenty and thirty five years to life, without possibility of parole.

Rhett got five years, with time served.

“It’s… better than I ever hoped, and worse than I expected,” he said to Stevie later, when they’d left the courtroom. His last glance back had seen Link full on sobbing in Rodrigo’s arms. “If that makes sense.”

“It’s by far the best outcome,” she said. “Four years isn’t that long in the grand scheme of things. That’s high school. College. A presidential term.” Rhett made a disgusted face at her comparisons. “Okay, maybe not the best examples, I admit.”

“What am I gonna do now, Stevie?” Rhett asked, voice small. “That’s all I’ve been waiting for, this whole year, and now…” he shrugged.

“Well, you’re gonna keep moving forward, is what you’re gonna do,” she replied. “It’s time for you to focus on yourself, now.”

“Yeah,” Rhett said. “Yeah, okay.”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Rhett found prison terrifying for a few weeks, but quickly sank into boredom.

His cell was much smaller than the illegal apartment had been, and he shared it with a kid named Tyler, but everyone called him Austin. He was twenty four and on year three of a thirty year sentence for aggravated assault, armed robbery, and methamphetamine possession. Rhett found him mildly unhinged, and wondered if he was naturally like that, or if it was due to the effects of meth on a developing brain.

“Why do they call you Austin?” he asked.

“‘Cause I’m from Texas, originally.” This wasn’t a surprise. He had a notable Texas accent.

“Oh, Austin?” Rhett asked.

“Naw, Galveston.” Austin giggled. He did that a lot.

The logic of prison nicknames escaped Rhett.

Austin was a tolerable, if weird, cellie, and Rhett soon fell into a routine. He was lucky, Stevie said, that he was assigned to the _good_ prison, the one with all the different programs. There was a computer lab where they taught coding classes, and Rhett got hired on as a tutor, for which he was paid the princely sum of fifteen cents an hour.

“When you’re on the outside, you can find all sorts of resources online,” he told his tutees, DeMarion and Robert, “so a lot of people fall into a trap where they don’t really understand what they’re doing--they just follow a tutorial. But since we don’t get to have the internet here, you’re going to get really, really good at understanding the basics.”

“Like when the math teacher won’t let you use a calculator,” Robert said.

“Exactly.”

DeMarion snorted. “Man, I hated that shit.”

“But aren’t you glad you know how to do basic math now?” Rhett asked. “You see some of these guys in here, they can barely read, they can’t make change for a dollar. Imagine how hard it would be to go through life like that.”

Robert and DeMarion nodded. There were a lot of guys like them in here, plenty smart, but held back by poverty, prejudice, abuse, trauma, and lack of opportunity. Rhett wanted to do his part to help them break that cycle.

He gave each of them a sheet of paper and a pencil. “So what I want you to do is write a little program that will go through a list of random numbers and delete every instance of the number 2. Then you’ll switch and check each others’ program for errors.”

“He the teacher that won’t let you use a calculator,” DeMarion grumbled to Robert, but he got to work right away. Rhett grinned. They were doing great, and he was proud of them.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Rhett was allowed one visitor a month. His brother Caleb lived a couple hours away, and he tried to visit as often as he could. They’d hug, Caleb would buy snacks from the vending machine (inmates were not allowed to handle money and visitors were not allowed to bring in food), and they’d settle down to a game of Scrabble or checkers and chat.

The visiting room was always crowded and loud. Other inmates would have their whole families visiting, kids and grandmas and spouses and siblings. There were kisses and tears and laughter. One wall was painted in a series of outdoor scenes--a mountain, a waterfall, a beach, a jungle. One of Rhett’s fellow inmates was employed as a photographer, and families could purchase pictures for two dollars. Rhett and Caleb took a few, some serious and some goofy, to send to their parents in North Carolina, who were too frail to travel.

Rhett was incredibly thankful that Caleb was willing to do this. He hadn’t been a good brother the past few years. As soon as Demetrius showed up at his door, Rhett nearly completely cut contact with his family. He told himself it was to keep them safe, which was true, but it was also because he was ashamed of himself. His cover story as a Canadian wind turbine technician with limited internet access explained both his physical and digital absence. 

He felt guilty for ghosting his family and lying to them, but Caleb was a pastor, and therefore big on forgiveness. He assured Rhett that he understood completely and held no ill will towards him. Rhett’s mom and dad told him the same thing, during their short phone calls. He didn’t quite feel like he deserved it, but he was thankful nonetheless.

“So what’s new with you, brother?” Caleb asked as they settled down with a couple Cokes and some Cool Ranch Doritos. Rhett knew what was up with Caleb--he sent a postcard every week with a little update on the back. The postcards featured artwork by Rhett’s nieces and nephews, and he carefully stored them in his trunk. Next to the origami crane made from the Arby’s bag, they were his most precious possession.

Rhett dumped out the Scrabble tiles out and started flipping them over. “Uh, I started guitar lessons last week.”

“Remember anything from when you were in high school?” Caleb asked. Rhett played casually for a few years in his teens.

“Not really. It’s not quite like riding a bicycle. Lucky--that’s the teacher--he says it’ll come back once I get a little more practice.”

Caleb placed seven tiles on his rack. “Why’s he called Lucky?” He was endlessly fascinated with prison nicknames.

“He got shot in the head and the bullet bounced off.” Rhett mimed a bullet ricocheting off the side of his head with _pchoo_ sound.

“Wow.” Caleb placed his tiles on the board. PARK

They played three rounds. Rhett won twice, Caleb once. The conversation meandered from subject to subject. Caleb talked about his kids--his fourteen year old, Zack, was having trouble with a teacher in school, and Caleb didn’t know how much he should intervene. Rhett told him about his tutees--DeMarion was turning out to have a talent for coding and was doing well, but Robert got in a serious fight a month ago and had been sent to the SHU for an indeterminate amount of time.

“The shoe?” Caleb asked. “What’s that?”

“SHU. S-H-U. Secure Housing Unit. Solitary. The hole.” Rhett rattled off the nicknames.

Caleb grimaced. “Yeesh. You know, that really kind of puts into perspective how minor my problems really are.”

“It’s not minor for Zack, though.” Rhett remembered being fourteen. It was hard. “Just because we have serious issues on the inside doesn’t mean your issues aren’t real on the outside, too.”

“True.” Caleb studied the board and turned SPA into SPACKLE. The K was on a triple word score. 

Rhett groaned.


	21. Chapter 21

It was about a year into his sentence that Rhett saw Portelli.

He was out in the yard with Robert, who’d returned after two months in the SHU. His goal was to spend as much time as possible outdoors for the foreseeable future. This suited Rhett fine, so they started a game of pickup basketball with some other guys. 

Rhett was positioned perfectly to take a shot, but he caught sight of Portelli past the goal and froze. One of his opponents snatched the ball. He barely noticed.

“Yo, Rhett, what the fuck?” Robert yelled. He came closer and looked up at Rhett’s face. “Shit, you see a ghost or something?”

“See that guy over there? The big one with the crew cut?” Rhett jerked his head in Portelli’s direction.

Robert glanced over. “Yeah.”

“That’s the guy who kidnapped Link and cut his throat. I, uh, smashed his head in with a crowbar.” Rhett was a little embarrassed to admit that, for some reason. It wasn’t like Robert was unfamiliar with violence. After all, he was serving time for shooting someone in a driveby.

Robert looked seriously impressed. “Shit, Rhett. I didn’t know you had it in you. I thought you were just a computer nerd.”

“I didn’t know I had it in me, either. It was pretty spur of the moment.” Rhett thought for a second. “I am a computer nerd, though.”

Robert glanced over at Portelli again. “He musta been transferred in.”

“Yeah,” Rhett said unhappily. Portelli was the absolute last person in the world Rhett wanted to see. He’d just have to avoid him as best he could.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Rhett still thought of Link every day, and dreamed about him nearly every night.

The dreams had tapered off after a while, but they came back full force when Portelli reappeared. In every one, Rhett failed to save Link. He’d awake with a gasp and look up to see the steel underside of Austin’s bunk. Hours would pass before he was able to fall back asleep.

During the day, he wondered how Link was doing. Did he have nightmares, too? Did he miss Rhett? Where did he live, and was he happy with his husband? Rhett hoped so.

“You need help,” Austin said to him one morning. Rhett thought that was pretty rich, coming from someone who giggled to himself all the time. “You ain’t slept through the night in months. And you wake me up, talkin’ in your sleep.”

This was news to Rhett. “Really? What do I say?”

Austin shrugged. “Ain’t much I can make out ‘cept that guy’s name.”

“Yeah, I dream about…” Rhett touched his throat and sighed. “You’re probably right. And Stevie was right. I gotta let Link go.”

“‘Course I’m right,” Austin said smugly. “I’m always right.” He giggled.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

At least help was easy to find. Ninety percent of the inmates would be released eventually, so the prison administration provided a variety of support programs. Rhett signed up for a general therapy group. After a few sessions, the moderator suggested that he join a PTSD focused group.

“PTSD? Really?” Rhett said.

“You experienced an extremely traumatic event, Rhett,” she said. “And your dreams are forcing you to relive the trauma over and over. There’s ways to treat that.”

Rhett was silent for a long moment. “But I wasn’t the victim… how could I have PTSD?”

“That’s something you’ll have to explore at the PTSD group.”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Things got worse for Rhett before they got better. Talking about the assault on Link brought up details he’d forgotten or repressed, which brought all sorts of new details to his nightmares.

But slowly, gradually, things got better. Rhett practiced meditation and image rehearsal, focusing on the _real_ ending to the assault: he defeated Portelli and rescued Link, who went on to live happily ever after (or so Rhett imagined). His nightmares changed and began to reflect reality.

There was one other thing that helped immensely.

“Yo, that guy you smashed with a crowbar?” Robert said as he sat with Rhett and DeMarion in the computer lab.

“Portelli? What about him?”

“He got _fucked up_ last night!” Robert exclaimed. “His cellie knocked his teeth out!”

“Shit!” DeMarion said. “That’s fucked up.” He ran his tongue over his own teeth.

“Do you know why?” Rhett asked. He took a dark delight in learning about Portelli’s misfortune.

“What I heard was, he got in his cellie’s trunk and found his sister’s address, and he wrote her a letter,” Robert said. “An _inappropriate_ letter.”

DeMarion sucked in his breath. Trunks were sacred, an inmate’s only private space. Rifling through someone else’s trunk was bad enough, but contacting another inmate’s loved one on the outside was unheard of. It was probably the only thing someone could do that would make _everyone_ hate him. “They gonna have to transfer him. He gonna get killed if he stay here. Everybody gonna beat his ass.”

“Or just keep him in the SHU forever,” Robert said. “That’s where he is now.”

Rhett smiled to himself. “Let’s get back to coding, gentlemen.”


	22. Chapter 22

Little by little, he was able to let Link go. As his dreams became less frequent and less intense, Rhett found that he also thought less about Link during the day.

Instead, he focused on practicing his guitar, playing basketball, and working with his students. The computer lab periodically entered into collaborative projects with schools and companies on the outside, and in a bizarre twist of fate, Rhett found himself corresponding with someone he’d worked with before he got caught up with Demetrius. It was a strange kind of correspondence, filtered through the prison employees, but it was enough to allow his former coworker to look Rhett up and send him a note. A few letters back and forth later, Rhett had an offer of a job (or at least a reference) when he got out in a couple years.

“See, if you guys keep working hard after I’m gone, I can be that guy for you one day,” Rhett told Robert and DeMarion.

“What else you gonna do?” DeMarion asked. He and Robert each had at least five more years before they were eligible for parole, but Rhett was eligible for parole at any time. He had to be prepared.

“Oh, I’ll go stay with my brother for a while,” Rhett said. “Spend some time being Uncle Rhett.” He tried to be a good uncle from the inside, sending letters with drawings and stories to his nieces and nephews. Rhett knew the younger ones wouldn’t remember him, and he didn’t want to be too much of a stranger when he moved in.

Caleb encouraged them to send mail to Rhett, too, so he got at least a couple pieces of mail each week. Anything particularly amusing he shared with Austin, who never seemed to get any mail, despite signing up for multiple pen pal programs.

“Check it out, bro.” Rhett held up a plump envelope. “Christmas letter’s here.”

“Fuck, yes.” Austin hopped down from his bunk. The Christmas letter was a particular favorite of both of theirs. Rhett’s sister in law Tessa wrote a little paragraph about what she, Caleb, and their four kids had been up to over the past year. She even started including Rhett once he and Caleb reconciled, bless her. It was very funny and illustrated with photos and horrible clip art. The whole thing ended up being several pages long.

Rhett pulled it out and unfolded it. A bunch of construction paper shapes fell out and scattered all over the cell floor.

“What are those?” Austin asked. 

“Uh.” Rhett passed him the letter and leaned over to scoop them up. “Oh, they’re snowflakes.”

Austin was skimming through the letter. “Oh shit, you’re ‘bout to be an uncle again!”

“Give me that!” Rhett dropped the snowflakes again and snatched the letter. Tessa was pregnant with her fifth kid, due in May. They’d decided not to find out if it was a boy or a girl (“We already have two of each, and it’s the last big surprise I’ll ever have.”) until the birth. There was a picture of the ultrasound, and the baby got it’s own paragraph. Apparently, it was about the size of a pear.

Rhett quickly read through the rest of the letter. His paragraph was illustrated with a picture of him and Caleb smiling in front of the beach scene in the visiting room and a clip art of a 90s era beige computer, congratulating him on his job offer. He grinned and rolled his eyes before handing it back to Austin.

He gathered up the snowflakes again. Most of them had been folded to fit in the envelope, so Rhett carefully flattened them out on his mattress. He’d ask Austin to hang them up later.

One of the snowflakes felt particularly thick, and as he unfolded it, another, smaller paper object fell out. Rhett picked it up and his heart stopped for a second. 

It was a paper crane.

He took a breath and tried to calm his wildly galloping heart. Paper cranes were pretty ubiquitous, and easy enough for a third grader to make. Surely the most likely explanation was that his niece Katie made it, right?

But then Rhett took a closer look. The crane was folded with a precision that he didn’t think Katie would be able to reach, and it was made of plain brown paper. Wait… not quite plain brown. There was a hint of red on the underside of one of the wings, and a dark spot that looked like it might be grease.

Rhett carefully opened his little trunk and dug to the very bottom, where the crane made from the Arby’s bag was tucked away safe. He pulled it out and placed it next to the new crane. His was a little sloppy and imperfect, but they were the same size. Hands shaking, Rhett carefully unfolded both cranes and placed the squares next to each other. 

They were an exact match. This was the crane Link made to show Rhett how to do it. But how did it get in with the Christmas letter? Link must be in contact with Caleb and Tessa, somehow. Rhett refolded the cranes and put them away together. He pulled out his notebook and pen and started a letter to Caleb.

“Tell ‘em I said congrats on the kid,” Austin said. 

“Will do.” Rhett flipped to a new page and started over. It would probably be better to write most of the letter about the new baby and throw in “PS where did that crane come from?” at the end, rather than the other way around.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Caleb wrote back about the crane: _It came in a card with no return address and just a note that said “please forward to Rhett.”_

Link started to appear in his dreams again, but not injured, bloody Link from the end, or angry, black eyed Link from the beginning, but Link from the middle, when they sat on the couch and held hands and talked about books they’d read. The dreams were like that, too, domestic little scenes. Rhett didn’t bother mentioning them to his PTSD group because they weren’t traumatic, and they weren’t causing him any distress. He figured it was just his subconscious reacting to learning that Link was still out there somewhere, thinking of him. Over time, those dreams faded, too.

Stevie showed up occasionally, with bits of news about his co-conspirators, or updates on Rhett’s case. Demetrius ended up being charged with murder after remains were found in relation with one of missing person’s cases he was associated with, Willen was attempting to appeal his sentence, and Portelli had been transferred to another facility for a fresh start. Unfortunately for him, he was soon followed by another transferred inmate who knew what he’d done, and ended up back in the SHU there.

“And as for you…” Stevie pulled a sheet of paper out of a manila folder and slid it over to Rhett. “Check that out.”

“It’s my accumulation of time off for good behavior,” Rhett said. “So?”

“Take a closer look,” Stevie said. “It’s been adjusted to reflect your time in jail before the trial.”

“Oh.” Rhett ran his finger down the page until he reached the total number of days and did a little mental math. His head snapped up. “That’s almost seven months!”

“Yup.” Stevie grinned at him. “Keep behaving yourself, and you’ll be out of here in less than a year and a half.”

“Wow.” Rhett was a little stunned. He knew he’s been accumulating time, of course, but he’d always kept it at the very back of his mind, to avoid getting his hopes up. Things could change very quickly in prison.

“You’ve got housing, yes? And a job reference?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, if you manage to keep out of trouble on the outside, you’ll be about as successful a client as a lawyer could hope for,” Stevie said. “And I think you’ll do just fine.”

Rhett nodded emphatically. “I don’t ever want to do any of this again.”

“Don’t take this the wrong way, Rhett, but once you get out of here, I never want to see you again.” Stevie gathered up her things.

Rhett laughed. “The feeling’s mutual.”


	23. Chapter 23

As Rhett’s release date grew closer, he started preparing for life on the outside.

Because Rhett would be moving in with them, Caleb and Tessa came to visit their kids Zack, now sixteen, and Avery, who was thirteen. The younger kids, Katie, who was ten, Jake, who was six, and Abby, the surprise baby girl, who was a year, stayed home with Tessa’s parents. The visiting room would be too overwhelming for them.

It was certainly overwhelming to Tessa, Zack, and Avery. They looked around wide-eyed at the chaos around them. Rhett was used to it, of course, but when he looked at it from their perspective, he understood their shock.

Caleb got snacks and they managed to snag a corner and set up a game of Scrabble. The other three knew Rhett, of course, but it had been over five years since he’d last seen them, and it was as awkward for him as it was for them.

But Caleb had been working very hard to foster a relationship between his children and Rhett, and as they played and chatted, things got easier. After the game, they took some pictures in front of the waterfall mural, and Rhett gave Caleb and Tessa brief prison-approved hugs, and shook hands with Zack and Avery. They promised they’d come visit again at least once before he got out.

When he had two months to go, Rhett wrote to his former coworker again and managed to secure an interview. “You one lucky motherfucker,” DeMarion said when he told them. “How you get so lucky?”

Rhett held up his hands in bafflement. “I dunno, man. I really don’t.”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The night before Rhett’s release, Austin stuck his head over the edge of his bunk. “Hey Rhett.”

Rhett looked up. “What?”

“I just wanted you to know, you’ve been a real good cellie. Quiet. Polite. My cellie before, he was an asshole.” Austin paused for a moment. “You know, before you showed up, I read an article about ya boy.”

Rhett frowned. “You mean Link?”

“Yeah. He said that if he had to be trapped in a room with somebody, he was glad it was you.” Austin giggled. Rhett wouldn’t miss that. “So when I found out you were gonna be my cellie, I figured I lucked out.”

“Thanks, man. You’ve been a pretty good cellie, too.” _Not as good as Link, though,_ Rhett thought. He settled back onto his crappy flat pillow. “Hope your next cellie is okay.”

“Fingers crossed.”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Caleb brough street clothes for Rhett when he came to pick him up. Rhett had been wearing blue scrub pants that said INMATE down the leg for nearly five years, and the jeans felt unnaturally stiff and restrictive. The hoodie with its drawstring and the shoes with their laces also felt foreign and subversive.

Rhett had his few belongings in a plastic bag. They mainly consisted of the letters he’d received from his family, a few notebooks he’d used as journals, and his two cranes.

They walked out to Caleb’s car. Rhett stared up at the sky. It was the same sky he saw when he went out in the yard to play basketball, but somehow it seemed different without the fence around him.

When they reached the car, Caleb walked around to the driver’s seat and got in. Rhett walked to the passenger door and stood there. Caleb stared at him and rolled down the window. “Why aren’t you getting in?”

“Oh.” Rhett shook himself a little and got in the car. “It’s just… I haven’t opened a door in a long time. The COs always do it inside.”

Caleb gave him a thoughtful look. “There’s a lot of stuff you’re going to have to unlearn, huh?”

Rhett thought about all the rules, written and unwritten, that he’d been following for the last four and a half years. “Oh yeah.”

“Well, don’t worry about that now.” Caleb pulled out of the parking lot. “Let’s go get some barbecue and head on home.”

Rhett rolled down his window and grinned into the rushing wind. He was a free man now.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Caleb and Tessa had renovated their basement to make a bedroom and ensuite bath for Rhett. It wasn’t very big, but everything about it delighted him. The first thing he did was take a long hot shower in his own private bathroom that he didn’t have to share with _anybody_. It was an unimaginable luxury.

The younger kids were a little apprehensive around him at first. It was understandable. Even though he’d been mailing them stories and drawings for years, he was a huge, wild-haired stranger. But he was patient, and gentle, and kind, and they eventually warmed up to him.

Rhett hadn’t cut his hair or beard at all, and his hair reached down to his collarbones. If he straightened the curls out, it went halfway down to his elbows. He ended up having to trim his beard quite short, though, because it turned out that the baby _loved_ to pull it. He could put his hair up in a bun, but there was nothing he could do about the beard, so it had to go.

Rhett loved being around his niblings. They were so funny and energetic that they made him feel decades younger. He had plenty of time to spend with them, too, because his interview resulted in a part time contract job. After years of being locked up, spending time with little people who always wanted to go _do things_ felt like a new beginning.

Caleb and Tessa were thankful for his help, and he was thankful to them for opening their home to him. They had dinner together every night as a family. Caleb always led with a blessing, and although Rhett had lost most of the faith of his childhood at some point (possibly when he started spending time with kidnappers and cutthroats), there was something comforting in the familiar words and rituals.

If Rhett wasn’t living his best life, he was certainly living his pretty darn goodest life.

He hoped that Link was out there living his best life, too, but he wasn’t going to contact him. Link knew when Rhett was going to be released. If he wanted to contact Rhett, he would, and Rhett would leave that choice up to him.


	24. Chapter 24

It wasn’t unusual for Rhett to get mail. He exchanged letters with Austin, DeMarion, and Robert pretty regularly. Lately he’d been having an in depth conversation with DeMarion about diversity in tech, so he usually got a letter twice a week.

“Uncle Rhett, you got a letter!” Katie sang. Rhett picked up the baby and walked over to the kitchen counter, where the mail was dumped. He picked up the envelope and inspected it.

It wasn’t from the prison. They had very specific rules about what was and was not allowed to be sent out, and this letter would not have passed. It felt like some kind of embellished greeting card (inmates were allowed flat cards _only_ ) and the return address wasn’t from the prison.

“Huh. Katie, hold Abby for a second so I can open this.” Rhett passed the baby over and opened the envelope. It was a plain blue greeting card, and pasted on the front was a paper crane.

Rhett’s stomach dropped and his heart leapt into his throat. He ran a finger over the crane. It was made of beautiful yellow and orange paper in a chrysanthemum pattern. His hands shook as he opened it.

_Rhett--_

_I heard you were out and I just moved back to California, so if you’d like to hang out some time, give me a call._

_Link_

There was a phone number underneath.

Rhett dropped the card onto the counter in shock. He’d half expected that Link would never want to have anything to do with him ever again, but here he was, asking to hang out. Rhett stared at the card. Link’s handwriting was cramped and spidery, but Rhett thought it was beautiful.

“Um, Uncle Rhett, are you okay?” Katie asked. “You look like you’re gonna cry.”

Rhett looked up and took Abby back. She shrieked in protest and he bounced her a little to soothe her. “I’m fine. I just didn’t expect to get a letter from that person, is all.”

“Who is it?” Katie picked up the card and looked at the crane. “This is pretty.”

“So, your parents told you that there was a guy that I did something bad to even though I didn’t want to, but then I helped him, right?”

“Yeah.” Caleb and Tessa had given the younger kids an abridged version of Rhett’s crime.

Rhett pointed to the card. “That’s from him. Back… back when I helped him, he said he hoped we could be friends one day, but I didn’t really believe him. I guess he was serious, though.” 

Katie put down the card. “Can we go to the park? I wanna play on the big slide.” She was oblivious to Rhett’s inner turmoil.

“Uh, sure.” Pushing Abby in the baby swing while Katie and Jake ran around wild would give him some time to think.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Taking three kids to the park didn’t actually give Rhett any time to think. Jake fell and scraped his knee and wanted to go home, Katie got mad because she didn’t want to go home, and Abby threw a fit about being in the swing. By the time Rhett got them all calmed down, he realized that he hadn’t thought about Link at all.

Zack was in his room, playing some complicated video game. Rhett knocked and stuck his head in. “Hey, I gotta make a phone call,” he said. “Abby’s down for a nap and the other two are watching a movie in the living room. Can you just keep an ear out for them?”

“Sure.” Zack was a good big brother, patient and helpful. Rhett tried not to ask much of him, but when he did, Zack was always willing to help.

“Thanks.” Rhett snagged the card from the counter and headed down to his bedroom. He pulled out his phone and sat with it in one hand and the card in the other. He stared down at the words.

_give me a call_

Rhett put down the card, typed in the number, and hit “call”.

It rang once, twice, three times… and then there was an answer.

“Hello?” said a scratchy voice. It was Link. After all this time, it was really him.

Rhett opened his mouth to answer, but nothing came out.

“Hellooo?” Link repeated, and sighed. “Freakin’ spam calls,” he mumbled.

Rhett found his voice. “W… wait!” he croaked. He coughed and cleared his throat. “Wait, Link, it’s me. It’s Rhett.”

There was a long pause. “Well, hey,” Link said finally. “I didn’t think you’d actually call.”

Rhett laughed in surprise. Him not calling was an impossibility. “Why wouldn’t I?”

“Well, I don’t know,” Link said. “I don’t know what your life has been like for the past few years. Maybe you’d just want to move past it. Forget it ever happened, you know?”

“I’m never gonna forget that,” Rhett said. “But I didn’t think you’d want to talk to _me_. I mean, I was responsible for… for what ended up happening to you.” He didn’t want to say _getting your throat cut_ out loud.

Link sighed. “I don’t wanna have this conversation over the phone.”

“But you _do_ wanna have it?” Rhett asked carefully. He felt like they were on the precipice of something important.

“Of course!” Link sounded surprised. “I’ve been waiting almost five years to talk to you.”

“Oh… okay.” Rhett took in a deep breath. “So, uh, when are you free?”

“Tomorrow?”

“Uh… wow.” Rhett did not sound particularly intelligent today. “Yeah, that would be fine.”

They set a time. “See you then,” Link said, and hung up.

Rhett sat on the edge of his bed and stared at the wall. He was going to see Link tomorrow. Maybe he’d finally be able to get some closure.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> END OF ACT TWO
> 
> Serial readers: we will leave Rhett here for now and go back to Stockholm Syndrome Chp 19 to see what Link's been up to over the past five years.
> 
> Archival readers: feel free to follow Rhett to the end, or you can switch over as well.


	25. Chapter 25

Link lived about an hour away from Caleb and Tessa. Rhett didn’t have a car yet, so he borrowed Zack’s. It was extremely teenage boy: a bright blue Honda Civic with a spoiler. Rhett couldn’t decide if he was too cool to drive it, or not cool enough.

He’d spent a while agonizing over what to wear, but since his entire wardrobe consisted of about six outfits, his choices were limited. Rhett ended up in dark jeans and a gray and white flannel shirt.

The drive seemed like it took forever, but finally Rhett pulled up in front of Link’s house. He’d been pretty surprised that Link didn’t want to meet in a neutral, public place, but Link explained that he still had trouble in public. Besides, he trusted Rhett.

It was a little ranch house, on a side street in a quiet neighborhood. Rhett walked up the path and stood in front of the door. He took a deep breath, gathered his courage, and rang the doorbell.

Immediately there was a clatter of claws on wood and then a series of little _woofs_ at about ankle height. Rhett smiled. Link still had his dog.

He heard footsteps and a voice murmuring to the dog. And then the door opened.

There stood Link, finally in the flesh. His hair had a little more gray in it, his glasses were tortoiseshell, and he wore jeans and a simple t-shirt. He smiled at Rhett and held the dog back with his foot.

“Hey,” he said. “Come on in.”

Rhett’s gaze flickered from Link’s eyes (still gorgeous bright blue) to the scar on his cheekbone (barely there) to his throat.

The scar there started on one side of his neck, crossed over his Adam’s apple, and tapered off on the other side. It was flat and white, but still very noticeable. Another scar, smaller and straighter, sat just above the join of his collarbones. Rhett swallowed hard.

Link noticed his gaze and put a hand over his neck. “Seriously, get in here. I don’t want Jade getting out.”

“Oh, sorry.” Rhett stepped over the threshold and Link closed the door behind him. He looked around. Living room to the left, dining room with a passthrough to the kitchen on the right. There were couches and chairs and tables in the right places, but there were stacks of cardboard boxes and loose items scattered everywhere.

Link gestured around vaguely. “Sorry. I’m still moving in.” He walked into the living room and noticed that Rhett wasn’t following. He turned. “Rhett, are you okay? You haven’t said a word.”

“I… sorry,” Rhett said. “It’s just a lot. I spent so much time imagining seeing you, or not seeing you, but now that I’m here, I don’t know what to expect.”

Link huffed a laugh out his nose. “Yeah, I feel that. You want some iced tea? We can just sit and talk for awhile.”

“Uh, sure.” Rhett waited for Link to cross over to the kitchen before he settled himself into a large, plush armchair. He sank into the cushions and tried to relax. The little dog came over and sniffed his shoes. Rhett leaned over and let her lick his fingers.

Link came back and put a couple glasses of tea on the table. “You can pick her up, if you want. She’ll go to sleep in your lap.”

“What’s her name?” Rhett rubbed her belly as she wiggled around in delight.

“Jade.”

“Jade! Hi, Jade.” Rhett scooped her up. “I missed dogs. I’m gonna get a dog when I get my own place.”

Link smiled at them. “You’re still with your brother, then?”

“Yeah.” Rhett brought him up to speed with his current living and employment situation. “But, um, you were living somewhere else? And the guy you were with at the trial, um, my lawyer said you were married?

“Yeah.” Link sighed and took a sip of his tea. “So, my dad and I reconciled for about ten seconds, and I asked him to please not run a bunch of stories about me on his channels, but he did, so that didn’t last. It was a really bad time for me, to put it mildly. I went from that tiny apartment to all this media attention, and it was awful and lonely and no one understood. I missed you a lot. Like, a _lot_.”

“I missed you, too,” Rhett said softly, stroking Jade’s ears.

Link nodded. “I wrote you a few letters but I never saved them. Since I couldn’t talk to you, I ended up talking to this guy I went to college with. Rodrigo Rosales. We were never an item back then, but we could have been, you know?”

“Yeah.”

“So I was a mess, nightmares, agoraphobia, panic attacks, all that, and I could barely talk.” Link touched his neck lightly. 

“Your voice got a lot better between the preliminary hearing and the trial, though,” Rhett noted.

“I had surgery to remove some scarring,” Link said. “They stuck a laser down my throat.” He made a sword-swallowing motion.

“Whoa.”

“Yeah, it was pretty cool. Anyway, I was barely functional, and Rodrigo was wonderful. He was so sweet and organized and took care of everything, and I was happy to let him. It was my idea to get married, but he was into it, and we got married after eight months. That was maybe a month before the trial?” Link glanced up at the ceiling as he consulted his mental calendar. “Yeah. It seems stupid, now.”

Rhett shrugged. He wondered what sort of decisions he would have made if he’d been in a position to make any.

“Anyway, we moved to Minneapolis right after the trial was over, ‘cause Rodrigo thought I needed a fresh start, and that’s where his family was. And it worked for a while, but I had plenty of time to go to therapy because I wasn’t working and things changed between us as I got better.”

“How so?” Jade was sound asleep in Rhett’s lap. He took a swallow of his tea. It was very good, just lightly sweetened.

“Oh god.” Link grimaced. “Okay, this is going to make Rodrigo sound awful, but he isn’t, I promise. He just… our relationship dynamic was sort of patient/caretaker at the beginning, and once I started being able to leave the house by myself and sleep through the night, I didn’t need him as much anymore. But he’s the kind of person who needs to be needed, and I stopped being that person. I _had_ to stop being that person, and he was holding me back. Not on purpose, but…” Link sighed again, heavier this time. “It all just kind of fell apart, and we separated about a year ago and everything got finalized about six months ago.”

“So why’d you move back?” Rhett asked. “You were there for three or four years. Didn’t you have friends and a job and everything?”

“Because _fuck_ that winter bullshit,” Link said. “I couldn’t stand another one. Rodrigo had friends, not me, and I never did go back to work.”

“Really?” Rhett raised his eyebrows. “Even now?”

“Not yet. I was on disability for a while, but my dad set up a trust for me, and I’ll never have to work again if I don’t want to. I think he might feel responsible.” A sly smile slid across Link’s face. “I like to think of it as my ransom money.”

Rhett spluttered into a laugh. “Link!”

Link grinned at him. “So I realize this is kind of a broad question, but what’s prison like?”

“Oof.” Rhett leaned back in his chair and stroked Jade. “Boring and terrifying at the same time? The cells were tiny, like maybe the size of the bathroom in the apartment.”

“Holy shit.”

“Yeah. My cellie was this weird kid Austin who giggled all the time. He was okay other than that. Um, I just tried to keep my head down and keep busy. Learned to play the guitar, taught a couple former gangbangers to code, wrote lots of letters, played a lot of basketball, went to therapy groups. Honestly, I hated pretty much every second and I never want to go back.” He looked at Link and said carefully, “Portelli was there for a while.”

“ _What_?” Link’s mouth dropped open in shock.

“Yeah, he got transferred in after I’d been there about a year. He, um, he got into his cellie’s trunk, and found his sister’s address and wrote her some kind of inappropriate letter. That’s, like, the worst thing you could ever do. It breaks so many official and unofficial rules… everyone hated him. His cellie beat his ass and knocked out some of his teeth.”

“Whoa.”

“Yeah, so they sent him to the SHU--solitary--and then transferred him out, but the guys at the new place found what he did, so he got put in the SHU there, too.”

Link absorbed this news. “Prison sounds fucked up,” he said finally.

“Prison _is_ fucked up, Link. I’m so lucky--I went in relatively unscathed and came out relatively unscathed. All those guys that I went to the trauma groups and the PTSD groups with, some of their stories… Jesus, finding your friend with his throat cut was nothing compared to some of them. And then, even if you can get past whatever happened to you before, prison is traumatizing in and of itself.” Rhett shook his head. “That’s what I have nightmares about now, being back in prison.”

“I’m sorry that happened to you,” Link said softly. “I told my lawyer not to go after you.”

“She didn’t, too much, but I guess it wasn’t really up to you.” Rhett shrugged. “It is what it is.”

“Can I… is it okay if I give you a hug?” Link asked. “I’ve wanted to for a while.”

“Oh! Yeah, I’d like that.” Rhett glanced down at the sleeping dog curled up in his lap. “Uh, I don’t want to wake her up.”

Link laughed. “Watch this.” He came over and carefully scooped Jade off Rhett’s lap, keeping her rounded like a cinnamon roll. “Okay, stand up.” Rhett carefully slipped out of the chair, careful not to jostle Jade. Link deposited her into the warm divot where Rhett’s butt had been. She didn’t wake up or move at all.

“Wow.” Rhett said. “I wish I could relax like that.”

“Yeah, me too. I can do this, though.” Link reached up and wrapped his arms around Rhett’s neck. Rhett pulled him close and rested his cheek on the top of Link’s head. Last time he did this, five years ago, Link’s hair smelled like generic dollar store shampoo. Now, it was something herbal and vaguely spicy.

Link melted into Rhett’s chest. “I missed you,” he mumbled into Rhett’s shoulder. “Is that stupid? Someone I knew for three weeks five years ago. And it was such a weird situation.”

“It’s not stupid,” Rhett said. “I missed you, too.”

“I have something to show you.” Link let go regretfully. He slid his hands from Rhett’s shoulders down to his chest. Rhett dropped his hands to Link’s waist. Their eyes met and they stood like that for a few moments. Link looked away first and stepped back. “C’mon.”

He walked over to the dining room. There were papers spread across the table. Link gathered them up and deposited them on the kitchen counter before selecting one of the boxes lining the wall and putting in the middle of the table. It was about two feet by three feet, and about six inches deep. He went into the kitchen and rummaged around in a drawer, eventually coming up with a pair of scissors.

Link presented them to Rhett, handles out. “I haven’t seen it yet. I wanted to save it so you could do the honors.”

Rhett took the scissors and carefully slit the tape. Whatever was inside was cocooned in bubble wrap, and he cut through it and peeled it off.

They both gasped as the object inside was revealed. It was a shadow box, about two inches deep, with a dark wooden frame. Inside, Link’s cranes were strung on fishing line, suspended in the air. Whoever strung them up had carefully arranged them in a gradient from light to dark, with the colored cranes sprinkled throughout.

“Link, it’s beautiful.” Rhett reached out and touched the frame. 

“There’s not a thousand anymore, though. Only nine hundred and ninety nine.”

Rhett pulled out his wallet and extracted the two Arby’s cranes. “Oh! You did get it!” Link exclaimed happily.

“Yeah.” They were a little worse for wear, but Rhett handed the one from the Christmas letter out to Link, who shook his head.

“Keep it. I don’t need it anymore, because look…” he slipped an arm around Rhett’s waist. “My wish came true.”

“Huh,” Rhett said. “It sure did, didn’t it?”


	26. Chapter 26

Rhett made a deal with his nephew Zack: Zack would let him borrow the car every Tuesday in exchange for Rhett covering for Zack so he could enjoy some private time with his girlfriend.

“I don’t need… we’re not having sex!” Zack spluttered when Rhett presented him with a pack of condoms.

“Yeah? Well, if you do, now you’re prepared. Lemme know if you need some more.” Rhett took the keys and left a red faced Zack behind him. 

He and Link were growing a relationship from the seed that had been planted five years ago. It was slow going. They each had an idealized version of the other that they’d been imagining for five years, and they each had a very different view of the final hours of Link’s captivity.

Rhett viewed it as a failure on his part. He hadn’t broken Link out soon enough, and Link had nearly died as a result. Despite all the trauma groups he’d attended, he was still racked with guilt and felt like a fraud for his PTSD symptoms. After all, he hadn’t been the victim.

Link viewed it as an assault perpetrated on him by Willen and Portelli. In his version, Rhett was his savior, his rescuer, his knight in shining armor. 

As the weeks turned to months, though, and they got to know each other for real, their views began to reconcile. As was often the case, the truth was somewhere in the middle.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

“Does your family know that we’re hanging out?” Link asked. They were taking Jade on a walk around Link’s neighborhood, one of the few things he could do outside his house comfortably.

“Um, no. No, they do not.”

Link raised his eyebrows. “It’s been three months, Rhett. You’re gonna have to tell them some time.”

“I know.” Rhett took a slightly longer step than he needed to in order to step on a particularly crisp looking dead leaf. It crunched under his sneaker in a most satisfying way. “It’s gonna be awkward. Tessa’s gonna look at me all mom-concerned and Caleb’s gonna say something about ‘moving backwards’ and I really just don’t want to deal with it.”

“I told Rodrigo,” Link said. “He wasn’t happy. I knew he wouldn’t be.” He and Rodrigo still spoke occasionally. 

“Then why’d you tell him?”

“Because he asked! And, I mean, he knew part of the reason I moved back here when I did is because it was around when you were getting out…”

Link walked forward a few steps and then realized that Rhett wasn’t with him. He turned back to see Rhett standing still with his mouth open.

“You moved back here for _me_?” he asked in astonishment. “You didn’t even know if I was willing to talk to you!”

“It wasn’t just for you, although I will admit that was a factor,” Link said. “I hated Minneapolis. I kept waiting for it to feel more like home, but it never did. So I came back to California.”

They walked in silence for a few minutes. Jade stopped to thoroughly sniff every tree.

“During the trial… I saw him looking at me. I kind of got the feeling he didn’t like me,” Rhett said.

Link laughed a little. “He didn’t. He thought you should have acted sooner.”

“I should have! I’m never going to forgive myself for that.”

“There was a while where I thought so, too. I was so _mad_ , Rhett. Mad at you, mad at those other assholes, mad at my dad… everyone and everything.” Link shook his head. “That was after the trial was over. I kind of snapped. It was a big part of the reason we moved to Minneapolis.” 

“But you obviously got over it,” Rhett said. “How’d that happen?”

“Lots of therapy. And I didn’t _want_ to be mad at you, so I specifically worked on forgiving you.” Jade stopped and sniffed a patch of ground, then peed on it. They waited for her to finish before continuing on. “Rodrigo was very much of the mindset that I leave it all behind as fast as possible, and yeah, there was a lot I couldn’t wait to put behind me, but…”

“But what?”

“That would have meant leaving _you_ behind. I was so attached to you, Rhett. You were the only good thing in that hellhole, and I didn’t want to let you go. I thought about you all the time. If I’d been allowed to contact you…” Link blew out a breath and raised his eyebrows. “I dunno what would have happened.”

“Yeah.” Rhett briefly imagined exchanging letters with Link and meeting him in the chaotic visiting room. “My lawyer told me I had to let you go.”

“Ooh.” Link’s eyes got big. “Does _she_ know we’re hanging out?”

“Nope. Does your lawyer?”

Link shook his head. “Nope. But I’ll make a deal with you: I’ll tell mine if you tell yours.”

“That’s fair,” Rhett said. “And I’ll tell my family.”

“Deal.” Link stuck out his hand and they shook on it.


	27. Chapter 27

_From: Rhett McLaughlin_

_To: Stevie Levine_

_Subject: Link_

_FYI: Link got in touch with me and we’ve been hanging out. Just wanted to make sure that’s legal._

_From: Stevie Levine_

_To: Rhett McLaughlin_

_Subject: Re: Link_

_While there is no restraining order or law that prevents you from contacting him, I advise against it on general principal._

_From: Rhett McLaughlin_

_To: Stevie Levine_

_Subject: Re: Re: Link_

_Thanks for the info and advice._

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Rhett waited until he heard footsteps in the kitchen above him before heading up. His bedroom was directly beneath it, and he’d quickly learned to recognize everyones’ tread. Right now, Caleb and Tessa were making dinner while Jake ran back and forth. Based on the crash followed by yelling he also heard, there was probably a soccer ball involved.

By the time he emerged from the basement, Jake had been ejected from the kitchen and was kicking the ball against the fence in the backyard. Caleb shook his head as he cut up potatoes and carrots for pot roast while Tessa leaned forward on the counter with her head in her hands.

“Why? _Why_ does he keep trying that?” she groaned. “Megan Rapinoe couldn’t make that shot!”

Rhett snorted. “He still trying to make the trick shot into the bathroom trash can?”

“Yes! I’m just…. argh!” Tessa threw her hands up. “What am I going to do with him?” Caleb shrugged and dumped his vegetables into a Dutch oven on top of the roast. 

“Hey, I need to talk to you guys about something,” Rhett said.

“Sure, what’s up?” Caleb asked. He opened the fridge and pulled out a bottle of red wine.

“Um, so, I’m not asking for advice, or discussion, or anything,” Rhett started. “I just wanted you to know this was happening.”

Caleb paused with the bottle of wine poised to pour into the Dutch oven. “Last time I heard you start a conversation like that is when you told our parents you were gay.”

“Yeahhhh…” Rhett grimaced. It hadn’t gone well. It took his parents a while to come to grips with the fact that the life they’d imagined for their son wasn’t the life he was going to lead, but they did eventually. “Anyway, I’ve been hanging out with Link. We’re friends now.”

“ _What_?” Tessa’s jaw dropped open.

“I thought he was in Minneapolis!” Caleb said at the same time. “That’s where that card was postmarked from.”

“Yeah, he just moved back here, it was his idea, and I checked with my lawyer to make sure it was okay, and it is, so, uh, that’s happening.” Rhett looked from Caleb to Tessa and back again. Neither one of them said anything. “Anyway, good talk. Thanks.” He turned and went back down to his room.

Rhett wasn’t surprised when there was a knock on his door a few minutes later. “Yeah?”

Caleb opened it. “Can I come in?”

“Sure.” Rhett scooted and over made room for Caleb to sit next to him on the bed. It was familiar positioning. They’d read many comics and books together that way growing up.

Caleb had a bible with him, which wasn’t unusual, but this wasn’t one of his annotated, academic bibles. It was the little leatherbound one he’d been given at his baptism, with his name inscribed on the cover in gold leaf. Rhett had one, too, somewhere at his parents’ house. Caleb opened it and began to read.

_“Two people owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he forgave the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?”_

_Simon replied, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt forgiven.”_

_“You have judged correctly,” Jesus said._

_Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little.”_

“So what’s your point?” Rhett asked. He had a pretty good idea of what Caleb’s point was, but sometimes he was surprised.

Caleb closed the bible. “I know you still blame yourself.”

“Yes.”

“I know you’re not really a believer anymore,” Caleb said. “But there’s still good stories, even if you don’t believe. You’re like the sinful woman. You’ve loved much, and you’ve given much, and you’ve been forgiven.”

Rhett thought about what he’d given (five years of his freedom) and why (because it was the only way he could save Link). He pulled his knees up to his chest. “It’s hard, Cay.” 

“I know.” Caleb put the bible down on Rhett’s bedside table. “I used to get those letters from you, pages and pages and pages, but you barely talk to me anymore. I miss it.” He paused. “And, you know, if you want to talk about things in a more, um, _structured_ way, I did go to school for pastoral counseling. I’ll leave the Jesus out for you, though.”

Rhett let out a surprised little laugh. “Yeah, you did, didn’t you? I kind of forgot about that. I might, uh, might take you up on that.” Sometimes he wondered if the trauma groups he’d attended in prison had done more harm than good. Listening to the other guys’ stories had been pretty traumatic on its own.

Caleb slung an arm around his shoulder and gave him a squeeze. “I’m here for you, brother. Any time you need me.”

“Thank you, Cay.” Rhett meant it.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

“God, I love that car,” Link said as Rhett entered his house and gave him a quick hug. “It looks more ridiculous every time I see it.”

Rhett glanced back to where Zack’s car was parked out front. It had recently acquired carbon fiber rims to match the carbon fiber spoiler. He made a face. “I’ve been saving up to buy my own. Almost have enough.” His savings had been pretty well depleted by legal fees over the years, as well as keeping his prison account full.

“I was wondering… do you pay rent?” Link asked. “Your job’s just part time, right?”

“Yeah, but it pays pretty well, and it’s remote so it’s flexible. I pay a little rent, but mostly I help take care of the kids so Caleb and Tessa don’t have to pay for daycare or babysitters.” Rhett laughed. “Never thought much about having kids, but turns out I love ‘em.” He took the grocery bag he was carrying and dumped the contents out on the kitchen counter.

“Oh gosh.” Link sorted through the packets: ramen, Hot Cheetos, and Fritos. “We’re gonna die of sodium poisoning.”

“Nah, I ate this shit for five years, and I’m still here.” Rhett said. He handed the Cheetos and Fritos to Link. “Crunch these up as fine as you can.”

Link made a face and started crushing the chips. Rhett dug around in the cabinet and pulled out some peanut butter and hot sauce. “Sriracha! We only had Tabasco on the inside.”

“Remember that sriracha shirt I had?” Link asked.

Rhett thought about the last time he’d seen the sriracha shirt, when it was soaked in blood. “I’d rather not.”

“Yeah, me neither.” Link held out the chip bags. “Now what?”

“Pour one into the other, shake ‘em up to mix ‘em, and add just enough hot water to make a paste,” Rhett instructed. “We need water for the ramen anyway.”

Link filled a pot and put it on the stove. “How do you boil water on the inside?”

“Uh, there’s a thing called a ‘stinger’ that’s basically an extension cord cut to make a live wire,” Rhett said. “It’s terrifying.”

“Sounds like one of those life hacks you’d see on Youtube.”

“Pretty much.” Rhett showed Link how to form the chip mush into two logs, then made a sauce for the ramen with peanut butter and hot sauce. “Tada! Tamales and pad thai.”

Link looked at the food in horror. “This is so much worse than I imagined.”

Rhett threw back his head and laughed. “If you saw what they served in the cafeteria, you’d change your tune real quick.”

“Maybe,” Link said doubtfully. He pulled off a bit of ‘tamale’ and ate it. “Rhett, this is awful.”

Rhett took a big bite of his ‘tamale’. “Yep. Better with hot sauce. If you feel fancy, you can put beef jerky or something in the middle.”

“Ugh.” Link tried it with hot sauce. “No, it’s really not. This is an insult to real tamales.”

“I’ll have you know, my nephew and his friends were very impressed.” Rhett finished his ‘tamale’. “The pad thai is better.”

Link grimaced, but tried anyway. “Oh! This is actually kind of good. Like something you’d eat in college.”

“Yeah, sometimes guys would add crushed up peanuts, mixed vegetables, tuna… it was amazing what they’d come up with.” Rhett shook his head. “So much creativity on the inside, you wouldn’t believe.”

“I’d believe it. Remember, I was locked up, too.” Link smiled at him. “I know how it is to have limited resources and lots of free time.”

Rhett looked over to the framed cranes in the living room, then grinned at Link. “Yeah, I guess that’s true.”

“So, do you wanna order some _real_ pad thai?” 

“Fuck yes.”


	28. Chapter 28

Rhett leaned against the counter and watched Link put their dishes in the dishwasher. “You should come over to my place some time.”

Link looked up. “Oh! Um, yeah.” He twisted his fingers together nervously. “Can I bring Jade?” She was his unofficial emotional support animal. Link often took her when he went out in public. His neighborhood luckily had many dog friendly shops, and Jade was so small and well behaved that no one ever objected.

“I’m sure that would be fine, but I’ll ask Caleb to be sure. I don’t think anyone has allergies or anything.” Rhett tapped his fingers on the counter and thought. “The kids will want to play with her, Avery especially. She loves dogs.”

“I think that would be okay, once I’ve been there a little while.” Link held up his hands in a shrug. “I don’t really know. I’ve never dealt with a group of kids before.”

“Your family-in-law didn’t have kids?”

Link shook his head. “Nope. Rodrigo’s an only child, and he has a few cousins but they were all grown.”

Rhett pulled him into a hug. “I’ll do everything I can to make it easy for you, okay? I’ll tell the kids they can’t mess with Jade because she’s working, if there’s anything you don’t want them to ask you about, I’ll make sure they don’t, if you get uncomfortable, we can leave right away and I’ll drive you home.”

Link relaxed into his chest. “Even if it’s in the middle of dinner?”

“Even if it’s in the middle of dinner.”

~**~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

It was another two weeks before Link came over for dinner. Rhett went to pick him up in Zack’s car.

“Oh, wow,” Link said as he climbed in. It was the first time Rhett had driven him anywhere. California might feel more like home to him than Minnesota, but he was still getting used to his new neighborhood. His world was gradually expanding, but it was slow going. “I’ve never seen a car with light-up footwells before.” He stuck out a high top sneaker and admired it under the slowly changing LEDs.

“There’s no off switch,” Rhett grumbled. “There’s a remote in the console if you wanna change the color, though. Fucking stupid.”

“Nah, I like ‘em the way they are. They’re fun. Kinda gay pride parade-y, though.” Link was bringing Jade, a bottle of nice wine, and some fancy sodas for the kids. He set the drinks by his feet and settled back. Jade curled up on his lap.

Rhett snickered. “You ready?”

“Yeah.” It was a big step for Link. This was going to be the first time he’d interacted with anyone who knew almost every detail of his story, and they were on Rhett’s ‘side’ (so to speak), to boot.

“So Jake and Katie went to Tessa’s parents’ house,” Rhett said as he began driving. “That’ll cut down on the chaos level by quite a lot. Zack and Avery are under strict orders to leave Jade alone unless you give them permission, and Caleb’s making spaghetti with meatballs and garlic bread.”

“Sounds good.” Link hesitated, then reached over and lightly rested his hand on Rhett’s thigh. “Thank you.”

Rhett took his hand off the wheel to give Link’s hand a squeeze. “You’re welcome.”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Link graciously allowed everyone to give Jade a quick pat on the head as Rhett introduced him. They all glanced at his throat, but he had on a funnel neck hoodie that covered his scar.

“And this is Abby.” Rhett picked her up out of her bouncy seat and held her facing Link. “Abby, this is Link. Say hi.”

“Hi, Abby.” Link put Jade down and took Abby’s chubby little hand and shook it gently. She grabbed his finger and stuck it in her mouth. Link’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. “She’s strong!”

“That’s my girl!” Rhett carefully extricated Link’s hand. “That’s why I had to cut my beard off. She’d grab and pull and not let go.”

Link wiped drool on his jeans and frowned. “Cut your beard?”

“Oh, I guess you never saw it. I had this really long Duck Dynasty beard because I didn’t cut it for five years. There’s a picture on the fridge.” He jerked his head to the fridge. The family picture from the visiting room with stuck up with a frame of random magnetic poetry words, Rhett with Tessa, Caleb, Avery, and Zack in front of the waterfall mural.

Link inspected the picture. “God, Rhett, I’m so sorry.” 

Rhett looked up from Abby. “What, that I had to cut my beard?”

Link glanced to the other side of the room, where Caleb was working on the meatballs and red sauce. “No, that you had to go to prison,” he said quietly, and gestured to the picture. “I mean...” his voice cracked. “I saw you in the jumpsuit and shackles at the trial, but seeing you like that in that picture… it makes it realer for me, I guess.”

“I…” Rhett wanted to hug him, but his arms were full of wiggly baby. “Just a second.” He went to the living room and deposited Abby back in her bouncy chair and went back into the kitchen. Link was still by the fridge, looking upset and shaky.

“It’s okay, Link.” He wrapped his arms around Link. Caleb glanced over at them, then turned back to the stove. “You need to go outside for a breather? Or do you want me to get Jade? She’s making friends with Avery.”

“Yeah. Can we go sit in your room or something? I just need a minute.”

“Sure. The basement door’s right there, and my room’s the door to the left at the bottom. I’ll get Jade and be right down.” Rhett rubbed Link’s back a couple times and let go. Link immediately vanished into the basement. Avery gave up Jade without complaint, although she looked disappointed, and Rhett carried her down into the basement.

Link sat on the edge of his bed, holding a pillow tight. He discarded it off to the side when Rhett held Jade out.

“Thanks,” he said quietly, and hugged Jade to his chest. She licked his face a few times.

Rhett sat next to him, close enough for their thighs and shoulders to touch. Link rested his head on Rhett’s shoulder.

“I feel like it’s my fault,” he said. “That you went to prison.”

“It wasn’t.”

“Oh, I know.” Link sighed. “It just feels like it.”

Rhett laughed ruefully. “You know, that’s pretty much how I feel about what happened to you.”

Link put Jade on the bed and pulled the neck of his hoodie down, exposing the scars. “You can say it, Rhett. Confront the fear.”

Rhett swallowed, hard. “You got… your throat… cut.” It was very, very difficult to get the words out. His hands and voice were equally shaky.

“I did,” Link said in his scratchy, damaged voice. “But I’m okay. And so are you.” He started to tug the neck of his hoodie back up.

“Wait!” Rhett held up a hand. “Wait. Can I…? He reached carefully out towards Link’s neck.

“Oh. Sure.” Link pulled the hoodie collar down again. Rhett gently ran his finger along the scar. He felt Link’s stubble on either side of the smooth scar, felt Link’s Adam’s apple bob as he ran his finger over it, and felt Link’s pulse thrumming in his veins. 

_Alive alive alive_

It was the most intimate thing Rhett had ever done with another person. “Wow,” he said as he pulled his hand back. He blinked, and was surprised to find his eyes were wet. He wiped them on his sleeve.

“Yeah.” Link had tears in his eyes, too. He pushed his glasses up and brushed them away. “God, we’re a pair, aren’t we?”

“We sure are.” They sat there for a little while, just taking comfort in each other’s presence, until the basement door opened and Zack hollered down that _Dinner’s ready!_


	29. Chapter 29

Dinner was a success. Rhett had been worried about how the kids would behave, but apparently Tessa had put the fear of God into them, because Zack and Avery were on their best behavior. Abby put pasta in her hair and sauce all over her face, but no one expected anything less.

Link did a very good job, considering he spent most of the meal shaking with nerves. He kept Jade in his lap and made appropriate small talk, asking everyone about themselves without revealing much about himself. Caleb asked him a question about what he did in Minneapolis, and Link somehow dodged it and told a funny story about watching an extremely angry man trying to get his car out of a snowdrift instead.

“I. Am. _Exhausted_.” Link collapsed back onto Rhett’s bed. Jade sniffed around the baseboards of the room. “I haven’t been around that many people since I lived with Rodrigo and he’d have his friends over to watch football, and even then I usually hid in the bedroom.”

Rhett flopped back next to him. “What about when you moved out here? You flew, right?”

“Nope. Rented a U-Haul and drove out here with my mother-in-law, and then she helped me get set up. She’s the best.”

“Your ex-mother-in-law helped you move?” Rhett asked. Link had mentioned her before, and he knew they were on good terms, but it seemed a little unusual.

Link laughed. “Yeah, Mama Lupe. It’s nice, you know, to have a mom figure, since my mom passed away when I was so little. And it’s not like I divorced _her._ ”

“I suppose.” Rhett thought for a moment. “What does Rodrigo think of that?”

“I never really asked him, and frankly, I don’t care,” Link said. He took Rhett’s hand and gave it a little squeeze. “But what do you think about it?”

 _Interesting_ , Rhett thought. Link didn’t care what his ex thought, but he did care what Rhett thought. “I think it’s sweet,” he said. “It’s great that you still have a relationship with her.”

Link gave his hand another squeeze and turned to smile at Rhett, who grinned back. He was so fond of Link, it was ridiculous, and it seemed like Link liked him just as much. Rhett wouldn’t quite go as far to say that it was worth everything they’d been through, but he was so thankful that Link was in his life, awful as their meeting may have been.

“You ready to go home?” he asked.

“Yeah.” Link had his eyes closed. “Do, um, do you want to stay at my place tonight?”

Rhett’s thoughts screeched to a stop and he had to pause for a minute. “Uh, I… I mean… you only have one bed!”

Link opened his eyes and gave Rhett an even blue gaze. “Is that really a problem? We used to nap on that horrible couch together.”

“Yeah, but that was different…” Rhett groaned. “I have to babysit tomorrow morning anyway.”

“Oh,” Link said, disappointed.

Rhett rolled over and pulled him into a hug. “Some other time, okay? I promise.”

Link nestled his head under Rhett’s chin. “Okay.”

“Let’s get you home.”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Rhett did a lot of thinking over the next few days. He did his coding assignments on autopilot, and the kids watched more movies than usual under his care.

He’d never had feelings for anyone like the feelings he had for Link. At first, he’d written them off as a combination of their traumatic situation bond and the idealized version of their relationship he’d imagined for five years, but the more time he spent with Link, the more time Rhett realized his feelings were real.

It was ridiculous, he knew that. A quick google search for “reverse Stockholm syndrome”, right after he’d spoken with Link for the first time, brought up “Lima Syndrome”, where _abductors develop sympathy for their hostages. An abductor may also have second thoughts or experience empathy towards their victims._

That certainly described Rhett. But all that was over now, years in the past, and their relationship now was a far cry from what it was during the three weeks they spent in the illegal apartment together. Now they were friends, real friends. The kidnapping might have brought them together, but it was their mutual respect, fondness, and understanding that kept them together.

But there was more to it. Friends, even the closest of friends, didn’t usually have the level of physical closeness that they did. They were as physically affectionate with each other as Caleb and Tessa were--hugs at every opportunity, always standing close enough to touch, arms and legs tangled together when sharing a couch. The implications weren’t lost on Rhett.

And now Link wanted him to spend the night. At his one bedroom house. That had one bed.

The implications of _that_ weren’t lost on Rhett either.

He wanted to see where Link was going with this, and he resolved to be right there with him.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“Guess who got their contract renewed!” Rhett announced as he entered Link’s house.

“Is it you?” Link guessed.

“Yep! _And_ it’s full time now, which means that not only will I be able to buy my own car, I can get my own place!” It wasn’t that Rhett wanted to get away from his family, exactly. He loved them dearly, but it had been a year since he was released and it was time to stop being a basement dweller. He was ready to have windows in his bedroom.

Link threw his arms around Rhett and gave him a big hug. “Oh my gosh! You’re like a real grown up now. I’m so proud of you.”

Rhett scoffed and reached up to mess up Link’s hair. Link shrieked and ducked away, and it turned into a half-hearted wrestling match that ended with them leaning against each other on the couch. Jade watched the whole thing from her bed in the corner.

They talked about where Rhett would like to live (somewhere equidistant from his family’s house and Link’s house), what kind of car he might like to get (not a Honda Civic), and what he was going to do with his new freedom.

“Oh, absolutely, I’m getting a dog,” Rhett said. “One hundred percent. Then I’m gonna teach it to wake me up from nightmares like Jade does for you.”

Link glanced over to Jade, who was now sleeping soundly. “I didn’t teach her to do that, she just does it on her own.”

“Well, I could really use it.” Rhett sighed happily. “A dog, a house, a car… this is gonna be great.”

“You know, I could have just _bought_ you a car at any point. I have a ridiculous amount of money.” Link giggled.“It’s so weird to think of myself as a trust fund baby.”

“I called you baby a few times,” Rhett said. “I don’t know where that came from.”

Link poked him in the ribs and made him squirm. “Uh, pretty sure it’s ‘cause you like me.”

“I do like you.” There was a long silence. Rhett took the plunge. “Baby.”

Link laughed in delight and slung an arm around his neck. “Say it again.”

Rhett laughed, too, and hauled Link into his lap. “Baby.”

“I like it,” he said. “I like you. And I think I’ll like… this.” Link pulled himself closer and very carefully, very gently, kissed Rhett.

Rhett kissed him back, slowly, carefully. They treated the moment delicately, like it would break if they treated it too roughly. Their whole relationship was like that, neither one wanting to hurt the other.

And Rhett wanted Link, badly, but there was something about it that felt wrong.

Link pulled back. “Yeah, I like that a lot. What do you think?”

“Wow.” Rhett blinked a few times. “I, uh, didn’t really expect that. But I like it too, baby.”

“Really? You really didn’t expect that?” Link poked him again. “We’ve been dancing around that pretty much since we met.”

“I mean… arg!” Rhett threw up his hands in frustration. “I guess I’m not really surprised. We like each other, a lot, and you _did_ invite me to sleep in your bed with you. But it feels wrong, Link! It’s like… you’re off limits.”

Link furrowed his brow, upset. “What? Why?”

“Because! I was your captor, and you were my prisoner. Doing anything would just be _wrong_.” Rhett remembered Demtrius telling him that he could make Link do anything he wanted, as long as he didn’t fuck up Link’s face. He tried to run his fingers through his hair, but it was tied back in a bun.

“ _Was_ , Rhett. Past tense. That’s over now. It’s _been_ over, for six years! I know this whole thing is weird, but please believe me: I’m not off limits.” Link threaded his fingers through Rhett’s hair as well as he could. “I’m not broken, I’m not the terrified prisoner I was before. Just trust me, okay?”

“I trust you,” Rhett did trust Link. He ran his fingers through the short hair on Link’s nape. “But you’re gonna have to be patient with me, baby. I think you’ve had more time to come to terms with it, if that makes sense? Prison’s kind of like a time warp. You get stuck.”

“Of course.” Link traced his finger over Rhett’s eyebrow. “Now that I have you, I’ll wait as long as you want.”

“Oh, you have me?” Rhett flung Link down onto the couch and threw a leg over him. Link squealed with delight. “No, I have _you_!” He leaned over to kiss Link again, neither gentle nor hesitant this time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> angry man stuck in the snow: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuTXUcoGdhw  
> see if you can spot when he drops his phone, and then later when he runs over it.


	30. Chapter 30

“Link, look! Look look look!” Rhett hauled him out the front door and gestured to the car parked out front. “I got a car!”

“It’s very, uh, green,” Link said. The car was a bright, metallic grass green. “What is it?”

“Chevy Impala. I don’t love it, but the price was right and it has enough leg room.” That was a very important consideration for Rhett. “You wanna go for a spin?”

“Sure.” Link grabbed a track jacket from the rack by the front door and zipped it all the way up to the throat and then picked Jade up out of her bed. She yawned hugely. “Sorry, girl. But we’re going on a car ride. You love those.” Rhett smiled at them. He liked Jade nearly as much as he liked Link. She was such a sweet dog, and she helped Link so much.

“You got anywhere you want to go?” Rhett asked. “The park with the koi pond? That ice cream shop with the weird flavors?” Rhett’s favorite was lavender honey goat cheese, while Link preferred cereal milk or peanut butter and jelly.

“Nah. We can just cruise.” Link had the window rolled down so Jade could stick her head out into the wind. Her nose wiggled wildly as she sniffed the air.

“So, I have somewhere I want to go,” Rhett said. Link looked over at him with a questioning glance. “And I know you don’t like surprises, but I promise this is a good one.”

“Rhett…” Link said warningly.

“It’s somewhere you’ve been before, but not for a long time,” Rhett said. “Jade’s been there, too.”

“Jade?” Link looked at the little dog in his lap. “A place I went with Jade, a long time ago. Um…”

“Here’s a hint: you didn’t go there with Jade, but you did leave with her.”

“Didn’t go there with her…” Link murmured. “Oh!” His eyes opened wide. “The animal shelter! Rhett, are you getting a dog?”

Rhett laughed. “Yes! I have one all picked out, but there’s just one more thing for me to check before I sign the papers.”

“What’s that?”

“I have to make sure she gets along with Jade.” He glanced over at Link, who gave him a shy, hopeful smile. “‘Cause if we’re going to keep spending a lot of time together, and I think we will, our dogs need to be friends, too.”

Link’s small smile grew to a full grin. “I’d like that.”

Rhett pulled up in front of the shelter. “I called ahead and let them know that I was bringing my boyfriend and his support dog, so they have a private room set up for us. One of the volunteers is meeting us and she’ll take care of everything so you don’t have to be around a bunch of strangers.”

Link held Jade close to his chest as they entered. Her nose twitched wildly at the smells of the shelter, and her ears rotated like satellite dishes at all the unfamiliar sounds. There were a couple of girls chatting behind the front desk, who looked up as the two men entered. One of them waved and jumped up.

“Oh, hey Rhett! C’mon this way.” She led them to a small room with a linoleum floor, a couple of folding chairs, and a big picture window in the wall. “Make yourselves comfortable and I’ll go get Barbara for you.”

“Barbara?” Link whispered. “That’s a weird name for a dog.”

Rhett shrugged. “They have a lot of animals, so they go through a lot of names. A lot of them have food names, for some reason. Latte, Parsnip, Wasabi.”

“Huh.” Jade sniffed around Link’s feet. “Lots of changes for you over the past couple weeks, Rhett. New job, new place, new car, new dog.”

“New boyfriend,” Rhett added.

Link laughed his scratchy little laugh. “I’m not that new.”

“You’re pretty new.” The doorknob turned and the volunteer handed a leash to Rhett. At the end of the leash was a fluffy white dog with a curly tail.

“ _This_ is your dog?” Link looked at him in astonishment. “This fluffy lil thing?”

“A big man can have a little dog,” Rhett said. “Look at you and Jade.”

“True.” The two dogs were cautiously sniffing each other. “I just expected something less… old lady, I guess.”

“I didn’t plan on getting such a little dog,” Rhett admitted. “But my apartment building has a weight limit. And watch this: Barbara!”

She turned and looked at him. “See? She knows her name. Okay, now sit.” Barbara sat. Rhett held out his hand. “Shake.” She put her paw into his hand. He touched the floor. “Down.” Barbara lay down. Rhett ruffled her ears. “Good girl!”

“Wow.” Link looked down at Jade. “You’ve got some catching up to do.” He gestured at Barbara. “So what’s her story?”

“She’s probably four or five years old. The volunteers told me someone dumped her in the parking lot a couple months ago. She had a collar on but no tags and her coat was all matted, so I guess she was someone’s pet once.” Rhett shrugged. “Works for me, though. She’s already trained and doesn’t have any puppy energy.”

“Mm.” Link smiled down at the two dogs, who were wrestling on the floor together. “I think it’s a match. Are you going to take her today?”

Rhett shook his head. “No, not for a couple days. The landlord is still trying to fix the toilet, so I can’t really move in until then. We can go look at it after this, though.”

“I’d like that. I don’t really want to interrupt their fun, though.” Link nodded at the dogs. “Look how happy they are!”

“We can stay for a while. It’s not like we’re on a schedule.” Rhett stood behind Link and wrapped his arms around him. He leaned down and whispered in Link’s ear. “Look how happy _we_ are.”

“Yeah,” agreed Link, clearly delighted. “We really are.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Latte, Parsnip, and Wasabi are all cats at the shelter I volunteer at.


	31. Chapter 31

“You have to walk through the kitchen to get to the bedroom? Weird,” Link said. Rhett’s apartment was on the second floor of a six unit building. It had a little brick balcony, original hardwood floors, and a bathtub on claw feet.

“Yeah, it’s like a shotgun shack, almost. Living room, kitchen, bathroom, bedroom. Kinda weird, but the price is right, and so is the location.” It was about half an hour drive to both Link’s house and his family’s house, exactly where Rhett wanted to be.

“Jade likes it.” She was investigating the kitchen, looking for any crumbs. “You need some more furniture, though.”

“I know! I’m pretty much starting from scratch.” Rhett made a face. “I didn’t have to buy anything when I moved in with Caleb and Tessa, because they already had a house full of stuff. I have, like, a bed and a frying pan.”

Link snorted. “Well, I’d offer to help you go shopping, but, well, you know.” He held his hands up helplessly. A trip to the furniture store was a guaranteed panic attack for him.

“I know, you’re an Amazon Prime man.” Rhett pulled him into a hug. “Tessa’s gonna take me. She loves Pinterest and all those decorating shows on HGTV, so she’s super excited for this.”

“You better make sure to assert your style, or this place is gonna look like it’s been on Fixer Upper,” Link said. He slipped a hand into Rhett’s back pocket. “Whatever your style is.” Rhett hadn’t really done any decorating in his room at Caleb’s house.

“I don’t really know yet,” he admitted. “It’s been...gosh, seven years? Yeah, seven years since I had my own place. All I know is, I want color. There’s no color in prison. Gray walls, white sheets. I never wanna see a white sheet ever again.”

“Mmm, guess I’ll have to buy some new ones.” Link stood on his tiptoes to kiss Rhett. “‘Cause that’s all I got.”

“I’d put up with a white sheet for you, baby.”

Link pulled back from the hug and put his hands on Rhett’s chest. “Tonight, Rhett? Please?”

“Okay.” Rhett smiled down at him. “You’ve been so patient. I know it’s taken me a while to get my life straightened out, but I’m ready now.”

“Then let’s go.”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

“Sorry, Jade. I love you, but we need a little privacy.” Link shooed her out the bedroom door and shut it. “Now, where were we?”

“I think we were right… about… here.” Rhett slid his hands under Link’s shirt and squeezed his sides lightly. Link reached up and tangled his fingers into Rhett’s hair, pulling him down into a hungry kiss.

“God, Rhett. I just... “ Link backed up to the bed and fell backward on it, pulling Rhett on top of him. “I’ve wanted this for a long time.”

“I know.” Rhett kissed Link’s jaw up towards his ear. “I’ve wanted it ever since I caught you jerking off.”

Link groaned and closed his eyes in annoyance. “You know, I’d almost managed to forget that.”

“Oh, no. I _never_ want to forget that. God, you looked good,” Rhett whispered in his ear. “So how about you take that shirt off so I can see it again, baby?”

Link grinned and immediately peeled off his shirt. Rhett sighed in pleasure at the sight--Link was just as gorgeous as he had been six years ago. He leaned over to kiss Link’s neck and froze.

The scar across his throat was there, bold and white, with the smaller, paler scar underneath.

“Hey. Hey, Rhett.” Link put his hand on Rhett’s cheek and gently pulled him up to meet his blue gaze. “It’s okay, really. It’s just a scar. It can’t hurt us anymore.”

“I know,” Rhett whispered. “It’s just…”

“Just shut up and kiss me,” Link said.

So Rhett did. He leaned over and gently kissed the edge of Link’s jaw, then beneath his ear. He worked his way down to Link’s collarbone, kissing and licking while Link moaned and squirmed underneath him.

Rhett swiped his tongue across the scar. It had a different texture than the rest of Link’s skin, hairless and smooth and slightly raised. The sound that Link made was desperate and hungry, and the hottest thing that Rhett had ever heard.

He continued working Link’s neck over, licking and kissing and sucking (he didn’t care if he gave Link a hickey--he rarely left the house and when he did, he always covered his neck). Link bucked his hips up against Rhett, grinding against him. He unbuttoned Rhett’s jeans, pulled down the zipper, slid his hand in, and squeezed…

“ _Fuck_!” Rhett swore as he came unexpectedly all over Link’s stomach. “God damn it.”

Link lifted his head and looked down at the mess. “Uh…”

“Fuck!” Rhett said again as he rolled off Link and flopped down next to him. He was fully clothed, his still hard cock pulled out of his jeans. “Sorry. It’s been a really, really long time. Like, six or seven years. And you’re really hot.”

“That’s fine and all,” Link said, his scratchy voice strained, “but I’d really like it if you’d return the favor.”

“Oh, fuck yes.” Rhett undid Link’s pants and pulled out his erection. “Been wanting to get my hands on this for a while.” He gave it a few lazy strokes as he went back to licking and sucking Link’s neck.

It didn’t take Link long to cum, either.

“Let’s try again in a while,” Rhett said. “Maybe we’ll last longer.”

“I’ll try as many times as you want,” Link replied. He squeezed Rhett’s hand, and they shared a kiss.


	32. Chapter 32

“A black couch with a white dog?” Link raised an eyebrow at Rhett’s recent acquisition. “That’s a bold choice.” Said white dog was chasing Jade back and forth across the room.

“It was the only one that was long enough for me,” Rhett said. “And it’s _really_ comfortable. Come sit.” He slapped the cushion next to him. Link sat on his lap instead.

“Yeah, pretty great.” He wrapped his arms around Rhett’s shoulders. “So do you like it here?” 

Rhett put an arm around Link’s waist. “I do! It’s nice and quiet, plenty of privacy… It’s not that I didn’t like living with Caleb and Tessa, ‘cause I did, but it wasn’t really a long term solution.”

“I thought about asking you to move in with me,” Link admitted. “But it seemed like it was too soon.”

“It _is_ too soon,” Rhett said. “Although we _have_ lived together before, so at least we know it would work.”

Link spluttered into a laugh. “Rhett! That doesn’t _count_!”

“What, you don’t think being kidnapped and locked in a room with a random guy is a good way to figure out compatibility?” Rhett asked, holding his hand to his chest in faux shock.

“Locked in a room with a random guy… sounds like cellies,” Link observed.

“You’re not wrong,” Rhett said. “Actually, speaking of cellies… you know how I write letters all the time?”

“Yeah, it’s like you’re a time traveler from a time before email.”

“Accurate. Well, my niece Katie got me this Japanese stationery set that has matching paper and envelopes, which is great, but it has these dancing fruits and vegetables with little faces--stop laughing!” Rhett tickled Link’s side, just making him laugh harder.

“Argh, stop!” Link flung himself off Rhett’s lap onto the cushion beside him. “It’s really sweet that you still write those guys, but the thought of you writing a serious letter on kawaii produce stationery is just too funny.”

“That reminds me, I have something to show you.” Rhett pushed himself up off the couch and went over to a pile of shopping bags and totes. He dug around until he came up with an object wrapped in a hand towel. “Here.” He handed it to Link.

Link unwrapped it carefully. It was a shadow box picture frame, a little bigger than a paperback book, with Rhett’s two Arby’s cranes strung on fishing line inside. “Oh, Rhett! This is beautiful.”

“Tessa made it for me, after I told her about your cranes. You know how much she loves that DIY crap.”

“She did a good job.” Link looked up from the cranes. “You know, Rodrigo didn’t want me to hang up my cranes.”

“No?” Rhett sat next to him on the couch. 

Link shook his head. “He didn’t even want me to _have_ them. I had a horrible time getting them out of police evidence, but I _needed_ them, you know?”

Rhett nodded. He knew. The proof was right there in the frame Link was holding.

“God, the fight we had…” Link shook his head. “Anyway, I ended up keeping them in my closet in a box, way in the back, and when I needed to remind myself that not everything about the experience was awful, I’d get them out.”

“Why did you send me one?” Rhett asked. “It drove me crazy. Obviously, you were thinking about me, but _why_?”

Link rested his head on Rhett’s shoulder. “I mean, I don’t know how much you really want to hear about how my marriage fell apart, or how much I want to tell you, but it was right after I started being able to go places by myself. There was this tiny little cafe a couple blocks away, and I’d walk there a few times a week. And Rodrigo was fine with that, but he didn’t want me to start driving again. ‘What if you have a panic attack while you’re driving? Or if you’re out somewhere and I can’t get you?’ He had all these reasons that I shouldn’t.”

“You still don’t,” Rhett said. Link hired a chauffeur service when he needed a ride somewhere. He had the money, and couldn’t trust “Uber randos”.

Link sighed. “I mean, he wasn’t wrong, but he _was_ an asshole about it. So I locked myself in the bedroom and got the box out, and I was sorting through the cranes and came across that one. And I thought about you, and I just decided that, you know what, I’m going to do something to reclaim it, if that makes sense? So I looked up your brother’s address and the nearest post office and I walked there and bought a card and a stamp and sent it off.”

“Okay, I know that was years ago, but I’m really proud of you. I can’t imagine how brave you had to be to do that.”

“I was fucking _terrified_ ,” Link admitted. “I can only imagine what the post office lady thought of me. Probably that I was on drugs or something. But I did it, and nothing bad happened. It was kind of a turning point for me. After that, I knew I could get better.”

“I’m so glad you did.” Rhett plucked the frame from Link’s hand and set it gently on the floor before pulling Link into his lap. “I worried about you so much, baby. I mean, I knew you were married, so I hoped you were happy with him, but other than that, I didn’t know _anything_.”

Link kissed him. “I’m happier with you.”

“Link!” Rhett was shocked. “You can’t mean that.”

“I do, though.” Link looked at him, eyes wide and sincere. “I don’t have to hide anything from you--you were _there_. You know exactly how it was. All the bad parts, and the good parts, too. You understand. No one else does. And you don’t push me past my boundaries, or try to set limits for me. You just accept me, scars and all.”

Rhett leaned over and kissed Link’s neck, right at the end of the scar. “When you made your wish that we could be together after everything was done, I wanted it, too, but I didn’t think it was possible. And then you got your throat cut that afternoon, and I _really_ didn’t think it was possible. So after all that, and all this time, for you to still want to be my friend, _more_ than my friend… it’s amazing, Link. I know I saved your life, but you gave me back mine. You’re so brave and smart and beautiful. I never wanted anything more than I wanted to be with you.”

“I love you, Rhett,” Link said. “You know that, right?”

“Yeah, but I sure like to hear you say it,” Rhett answered. “Because I love you too, baby. Probably since that very first day.”

“Ha! I knew it.” Link poked Rhett in the chest and pushed him over onto his back before straddling him. “Not sure when I fell in love with you, but I know when I realized it.”

Rhett slid his hands under Link’s shirt and caressed his smooth skin. “When was that?”

“In the hospital, when I woke up from throat surgery. I was just like… well, _shit_!” Link made a face. “Because there was absolutely nothing I could do about it. So I had to move on.”

Rhett raised an eyebrow. “Oh, so Rodrigo was a rebound, huh?”

Link laughed. “Shut up.”

“Make me.”

“Fine.” Link ground his pelvis down into Rhett and shut him up with a kiss.

They didn’t talk any more after that.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“I wanna do something that scares me,” Link announced.

“You mean like skydiving?” Rhett asked.

They were out on Link’s deck. It was a beautiful day late fall, sunny and unseasonably warm. The dogs ran around in the grass, tussling over a toy. The backyard was surrounded by a high privacy fence. Link had it installed before he moved in.

Link snorted and shook his head. “No, like something regular people do.”

“Oh.” Rhett tapped his fingers on the arm of his deck chair. “Something outside? It’s so nice today.”

“Like what?”

“Well, we could go to that park that has the rose garden and the big pond,” Rhett suggested. “It’s probably gonna be crowded, though.”

Link grimaced. “Not great.”

“How about a hike? There’s some trails not that far away, and they probably won’t be too busy because it rained yesterday.”

“You like hiking, don’t you?” Link asked. “All those stories you told me when I was panicking were about being outside.”

“I _love_ it,” Rhett said. “Being locked up killed me. I spent so much time going outside in my mind. I used to travel all over the place, but I can’t afford it now.”

“Um, I have money,” Link pointed out. “We could go anywhere.”

“That sounds great, but, uh, you have issues going places.”

“I _know_!” Link snapped, frustrated. “I want to be able to go places! I’m tired of being trapped at home, Rhett! That’s why I’m asking you for help!”

“Wow, okay.” Rhett blinked a couple times. “So, um, these trails. There’s probably a short, easy one. What do you think about that? We can take the dogs, too.”

Link twisted his fingers together and chewed his lip nervously. “It makes me nervous.”

Rhett shrugged. “You wanted to do something scary.”

“Yeah!” Link slapped his thighs and jumped up. “Yeah! Let’s go!”

Rhett laughed at Link psyching himself up. “Then put on some shoes you don’t mind getting muddy, baby, and let’s go.”


	33. Chapter 33

“I like the bandana,” Rhett said. “You should get Jade a matching one.”

Link flipped him off half-heartedly. “It’s too warm for a jacket. Absurd, this late in the year.”

“Global warming is real, man.” Rhett opened the rear door of the car for Barbara. Jade, as always, rode in Link’s lap. “You think you’ll ever go out without covering your neck?”

“I used to, in Minneapolis. It didn’t bother me that much when people stared, but I got recognized a few times. It was awful.” Link shuddered. “I tried using makeup for a while, but it got weird with the 5 o’clock shadow. Then I saw a plastic surgeon to see about scar revision, but he said whoever repaired it originally did a really nice job and this was probably as good as it was gonna get.”

“No one’s ever recognized me,” Rhett said. He rolled down the rear window so Barbara could stick her head out and set off towards the trails.

“That’s probably ‘cause your fucking dad didn’t let his media empire run wild with your picture.” Link reconsidered. “Actually, I take that back. They got a lot of mileage out of your mugshot and pictures of you at the trial.”

“I still can’t believe he did that.”

“I can! He’s never seen me as a real person. I mean, he named me after himself.” Link rolled his eyes. “I kind of wonder if someone twisted his arm into setting up that trust.”

“Who cares? Either way, you got the money.”

“True.” Link stared out the window and stroked Jade. Rhett glanced over at him.

“You still nervous?”

“What?” Link looked over at him, surprised. “Not really, no.”

“You sure?” They’d reached the gravel lot at the base of the trails. There were only three other cars there.

“Mmhm.” Link got out and gently put Jade down. “I mean, honestly, what’s the worst that could happen out here? I twist my ankle and you have to carry me out?”

“I am _not_ going to carry you out.” Rhett clipped Barbara’s leash on and let her out.

“You sure? Because you hit Portelli with a crowbar, tore down a wall, and went to prison for five years. For me.” Link raised an eyebrow and grinned at Rhett’s expression. “I know just how far you’ll go to protect me, Rhett.”

Rhett couldn’t argue with that, so he just led Link towards the trail.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The hike went well. The weather was beautiful, and while Rhett missed the green foliage, Link admitted he liked the leafless trees and shrubs--they allowed him to see when other people were coming.

The few times they did cross paths with other hikers, they just exchanged, “Heys,” and went their separate ways. The only tense moment was when they met a dad with two little kids, who wanted to pet the dogs.

Rhett looked over at Link, letting him make the decision. “O… okay,” he stammered. The dad noticed his discomfort, and ushered his kids on after a few moments.

“C’mon, guys, we have to keep going,” he said to the kids. As they passed, he mouthed _thanks_ to Link.

He was quiet as they walked on. “What’s on your mind?” Rhett asked.

“I think that was the first time I let someone pet Jade in public,” Link said. “I wanted to say no, but I let Jake and Katie pet her. Why should those kids be any different?”

“You’ve been coming out of your shell a lot lately,” Rhett observed.

“It’s been, what, six months since we got together? A little under a year since we started hanging out?” Link kicked an acorn down the trail. “It gave me closure, I guess.”

Rhett scoffed. “Closure’s not real.” He kicked an acorn after Link’s. The dogs’ heads snapped around at the rustle of leaves as it bounced off the trail.

“Well, _something_ happened!” Link threw up his hands. “It’s like I entered a new phase in my life. Phase one was before I got kidnapped, phase two was being locked up, phase three was the trial and Minneapolis, and now this is phase four.”

“Huh. I’d never really thought about it, but I guess I’m in a new phase, too,” Rhett said. “So what do you want to do in phase four?”

“Tubing!” Link declared.

“Tubing?” Rhett repeated, bewildered.

“You don’t remember?” Link asked. Rhett shook his head. “God, Rhett, we made _plans_! You told me about tubing on the Hudson that first day Portelli came back, when I had a panic attack, and I said we should do that someday, and you said okay.”

“Oh, yeah, that does sound familiar--” Rhett stepped on a clump of wet leaves and flailed his arms wildly to keep his balance as his foot slid out from under him. “Holy shit!” he gasped when he got his footing back.

“You okay?” Link asked. 

“Yeah.”

“Good, ‘cause I can’t carry you out.” They continued on, more mindful of their feet now. “But that’s _really_ outside my comfort zone, so I need to work up to it.”

“Then let’s just keep doing things like this,” Rhett suggested.

“I like that.” Link slipped his hand into Rhett’s and they finished the hike hand in hand with each other, and a leash in each spare hand.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Some of their experiences went well, and some did not.

Seeing a second run movie at the dollar theater on a Tuesday morning where they were the only ones attending: success.

Link driving Rhett’s car around an empty parking lot: success.

Link’s driving Rhett’s car around his neighborhood: failure. He hit the curb, freaked out, and ended up clutching Jade to his chest and hyperventilating in someone’s front yard which Barbara barked furiously from the back window of the car, upset that she wasn’t allowed out to join the fun.

Going to the grocery store without Jade: success. This one seemed like a shoo-in, because Link went shopping for groceries by himself regularly, but he always brought Jade.

Trying to go out to dinner at a busy Mexican place on a Friday night: failure. Link bailed before they even got seated.

After a few months and a lot of different experiments, Rhett went over what they’d learned as they lounged in Link’s living room.

“So, familiar places, even if they’re busy, are okay if you’re with me or you have Jade.”

“Yeah.”

“And unfamiliar places that aren’t busy are okay.”

“I mean, they’re not great…”

“But they’re doable,” Rhett said.

“I guess,” Link replied begrudgingly.

“And unfamiliar, busy situations, or unfamiliar situations with a lot of uncertainty--”

“Those can fuck right off,” Link said. 

“Yeahhh… that’s not a big deal for, you know, our regular life, but if you want to travel? Airports and airplanes are like, the epitome of busy, unfamiliar, and uncertain.”

Link dismissed these concerns with a wave of his hand. “I can just charter a private plane.” Rhett gaped at him, and he laughed. “It’s amazing how many problems you can solve by just throwing a lot of money at them.”

Rhett shook his head. “I always forget that you have more money than God. You certainly don’t act like it.”

“Oooh.” Link raised his eyebrows. “I’m telling Caleb you said that. I bet he has a Bible verse for it.”

“That’s something our dad says, so I’ve already heard it,” Rhett said. “But it’s a pretty good sermon, so you go ahead.”

“I dunno, he can get pretty heated sometimes.” Link spent a fair amount of time with Rhett’s family these days. It had been extremely awkward at first, but after nearly two years, they accepted him as a beloved, if neurotic, in law. They’d even reached the point where the conversation didn’t entirely screech to a halt when the kidnapping came up.

“So… do you want to go on a trip?” Rhett asked carefully. “Or I guess what I really mean is: do you think you’re ready to go on a trip?” If it had been up to him, he probably would have chosen a trip to somewhere closer by. California to New York was pretty ambitious for someone with severe anxiety and agoraphobia, but Link was stubborn, and once he had his mind made up, there was no dissuading him.

“Mm.” Link chewed a nail. “Not quite. But I want to set a deadline. Make a reservation, maybe.”

“How about in three months?” Rhett suggested. “That’ll be two years since I got out. Seven years since we met. Well, seven-ish.”

Link got up and climbed into Rhett’s lap. “I think that’s an excellent idea.” He combed his fingers through Rhett’s long curls and kissed him. “You know, when I moved back to California, I didn’t really know what to expect. I knew I wanted to see you, but never in my wildest dreams did I imagine it would end up like this.”

“Me neither,” Rhett admitted. “I thought I was incredibly lucky to get out of prison with a job and a place to live. But this…” He shook his head in wonder. “You’re the best thing that ever happened to me.”

“You’re the best thing that ever happened to _me_!” Link said. “And I wanna get you naked and show you just how much I love you.”

“Love you too, baby.” Rhett peeled Link’s shirt off. “And you don’t have to ask me twice.”


	34. Chapter 34

“I _never_ want to fly commercial again,” Rhett declared. “I don’t know how much you paid for this, but the leg room alone was worth it.”

“And, you know, having the dogs fly with us as passengers instead of luggage, not having to deal with the TSA, getting to bring our own food and full size water bottles,” Link said. “But I’m not gonna tell you how much it cost, because it’s honestly absurd.”

The chartered flight came with a concierge who helped them load up their luggage and drove them over to the car rental place. She was courteous and pleasant, and Link tipped her generously as she dropped them off.

“Well, it is a special occasion,” Rhett said.

“Yep, and that’s why I rented you a Corvette!” Link beamed at Rhett’s shocked expression. “You deserve it.”

“Wow,” Rhett said when he could finally speak. “You really did go all out, didn’t you?”

“I told you I was going to! I haven’t been anywhere in seven years.” Along with the chartered flight, Link had also rented a private cabin and hired a private guide to take them on the river. “Obviously, we’re not going to do this on the regular.”

They loaded up the dogs and suitcases into the car and set off. Soon enough, they were out of the city and into the mountains.

“It’s so _green_ ,” Link said, face nearly pressed against the window.

“Yep,” Rhett replied. Link turned and studied his profile for a moment. Trimmed beard, hair in a bun, sunglasses.

“Whatcha thinkin’ about over there?”

“Well, I really like how this car drives,” Rhett said, and glanced over at Link with a twinkle in his eye. “But mostly I was just thinking how far we’ve come.”

“I know. It’s crazy.” Link rolled down his window and aerofoiled his hand in the wind. Jade stuck her head out, snout twitching wildly. Barbara was doing the same in the back. “I can’t wait for you to move in with me.” Rhett’s lease was ending in about a month, and he’d accepted Link’s invitation.

Rhett laughed. “I pretty much live there already.”

“But I want it _official_ ,” Link insisted. “I want you to get mail at my house, and put my address on your driver’s license, and establish tenancy…”

“So romantic!” Rhett sighed and put a hand over his heart.

Link raised an eyebrow. “Oh, so it’s romance you want? How about this: I want you to hang your cranes next to mine, so they can all be together again. I want you in my bed so we’re there for each other when we have nightmares. I want to make you that awful ‘pad thai’ because you love it so much. I want you in my life, every day, forever, Rhett, because I love you.”

Rhett nodded, satisfied. “I want all that, too. The official stuff and the romantic stuff.” He reached over and squeezed Link’s thigh. “Love you too, baby.”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“This is everything I ever imagined,” Link said. He splashed water into the air, sending glittering droplets everywhere.

“Me, too.” They were floating down the clear, beautiful Hudson in bright yellow inner tubes. A cable tied the tubes together so they wouldn’t drift apart. Their guide, a college girl named Kara, paddled her orange kayak a ways downstream, coming up to check on them occasionally.

It was a lovely sunny day. They wore swim trunks, baseball caps, life jackets, and sunglasses on straps. It was a look that Link described as “very, very vacation.” He didn’t cover up his neck, and Kara didn’t say anything about his scars.

They floated in silence for a while, just admiring the water and trees and sky. Finally, Link said, “So, I’ve been thinking.”

“You’re always thinking.” Rhett took off his hat, stretched backwards over his tube to dip his head in the water, and sat back up.

Link ignored that comment. “I got married before.”

“Yes, I’m aware of that.”

“And it was too fast, and he wasn’t right for me.”

“Uh.” Rhett suddenly knew where this was going. His heart was in his throat.

“But this is different. _You’re_ different.” Link grabbed the cable between the two tubes and hauled Rhett right up next to him. He pulled off his sunglasses and looked Rhett in the eye. “So, Rhett, I was wondering if maybe you’d like to get married some day?”

Rhett was overwhelmed. “I…” His throat clenched up and tears came to his eyes. He pulled off his own sunglasses and wiped his cheeks. “Link. I… yes. Yes, I would like to get married.” He laughed, delighted. “I would _love_ to marry you!”

Link’s hopeful, apprehensive smile broadened into a joyous grin. He couldn’t say anything, just laughed and shook his head.

“Wow,” Rhett whispered to himself. “ _Married_.”

“Yeah, _married_.” Link’s eyes got a mischievous glint. “And I know this is jumping the gun a little, but do you think we should send an announcement to Portelli and the others?”

Rhett threw his head back and burst into laughter. Link joined him, and they laughed so much that the guide came back to check on them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't worry, it'll be a long engagement.
> 
> Thank you so much to everyone for reading, commenting, etc! I hope you enjoyed. The final "chapter" is my search history for writing this story, which probably has me on a list now.


	35. Appendix: My Search History For This Story

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In no particular order, here is nearly everything I researched for this story. Shoutout to the NSA.

About a million queries on the subject of getting your throat cut. Like every possible way you could phrase it  
Ibuprofen overdose  
Fraternity hazing/hazing deaths  
Metadata in photography  
Mens socks moon phases  
Trunk release lever/Janette Fennell  
Industrial engineer user interface  
Backhand slap/pimp slap  
Cars for tall people  
How much does it cost to charter a private jet?  
Can a felon travel out of state?  
Foundation over 5 o’clock shadow  
How long is a california license valid for  
Chauffeur service  
How to get property back from police evidence  
Is ricer/rice rocket racist?  
Chevy impala colors  
Pad thai  
Boil water in prison stinger  
Prison cooking/prison recipes/other variations on that theme  
Bible verses on forgiveness  
Agoraphobia after kidnapping  
Life after being held hostage  
Ptsd dog  
1000 cranes framed  
Disability for ptsd  
Vocal cord surgery/using laser  
San quentin letter rules  
Ptsd dreams/nightmares  
Restorative justice  
Serve on jury after felony  
Parole  
Beau Brummell  
Open larynx injury/can you talk with a cut larynx  
How long does a felony case take?  
Liquid shower soap  
Tallgrass prairie/Jerry Smith Park  
Turn state’s evidence  
The Monkey’s Paw  
Removing steristrips  
Black eye/faded black eye/black eye from breaking nose/etc  
John Paul Getty III  
Slow Horses  
1000 cranes  
Dollar Store/WalMart (lots of dollar store/walmart supplies)  
Subconjunctival bleed  
Stockholm syndrome/Lima syndrome  
ET in blanket  
Sriracha shirt  
Unusual last names  
Old Rag Mountain/rock scramble  
deprogramming/brainwashing  
Ariel Castro kidnappings  
LA newspaper  
Newspaper edge  
How is newspaper made?   
Making origami crane  
Origami engineering  
Avocado green velvet armchair  
Bathing in a mop sink  
Corner mop sink  
Free agent  
Newspaper crane  
Junk mail envelope  
LA to Oakland  
Lazy river  
Yellow rose friendship  
Tracheotomy  
Drywall demo  
Symptoms of blood loss  
Blood transfusion  
Neck brace  
intubation  
Electronic door lock  
Section 8  
50s house  
Ranch house  
Buy one stamp at the post office  
Post office dog  
Love languages/acts of service  
Hotdish  
Mijo  
How to wear scarf for men  
Silk scarf space pattern  
Crab nebula  
Computer Fraud and Abuse Act/cybercrime  
Bonding in traumatic situation  
Benzos for anxiety  
Survivor guilt  
Laryngoscope flexible  
Vocal cord scar  
Hospitality management studies  
Cotton scarf  
Zednik scar  
Clint malarchuk scar  
Neck anatomy  
Speech pathologist  
Toothbrush mustache  
Vocal rest  
Trach stoma closure  
Newspaper grocery ad  
Pocket sewing kit  
Shark eyes jaws  
Ford crown victoria  
Fixer upper style  
Shotgun shack  
Papillon dachshund mix  
Footwell lighting  
prison uniform/jumpsuit  
Duck dynasty beard  
Funnel neck hoodie  
Mens ankle boots  
California dog friendly  
Ramen in prison  
Honda civic carbon fiber rims/spoiler  
Counselor training as a pastor  
Pot roast/dutch oven  
Indoor soccer trickshot  
Tamale  
Esa vest  
Prison visiting room  
Arby’s bag  
17 week fetus size  
Clip art computer  
The hole prison  
Scrabble  
Prison nicknames  
Time served  
Prison computer lab  
Parole  
Modern cravat  
Ted kaczynski  
Throat cut by fish/mackerel  
turtleneck/roll neck sweater  
Skull fracture  
Where do arrestees meet their lawyer  
Guided imagery  
Hudson river  
Tubby tubes  
Side angle pose  
Shell corp  
Throw yourself on the mercy of the court  
Meundies  
Mop clip  
Janitor closet  
Hasp  
Assassination vacation   
Abandoned warehouse  
Conference room  
Does mcdonalds sell newspapers  
Dark web crimes  
Ransom victims returned alive  
Vomiting from head injury  
Chelsea boots  
tycoon/industrialist

**Author's Note:**

> Visit me on tumblr @pinecontents


End file.
